


The Dragons of Solstheim

by Panhead20



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Again not in any super graphic or disturbing way, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Body Horror, Canon Compliant, F/F, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Panic Attacks, Slow Burn, Solstheim, Useless Lesbians, all ur faves, but only a little don't worry, elves are freaky, hand holding, i fuckening love skyrim you guys, my first elder scrolls fic, this shit's gonna have
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2019-09-04 21:53:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 40,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16797775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Panhead20/pseuds/Panhead20
Summary: Frea's quest to save her people takes an odd turn when she meets a strangely compelling elf. Who is she, and what is she doing looking for the Black Books? On an island overshadowed by Miraak's power, can they find friendship...or even love?





	1. The Temple of Miraak

The Skaal were not a close-minded people, but they did carry a healthy fear of elves. Tharstan seemed to think it had to do with the mainlander's relation to their god, Shor, but that was all Frea could ever get out of the old man before he'd wander off, muttering about this strange god's connection to her beloved All-Maker (or a lack of a connection thereof). She also knew the tales of Saarthal, and the sack of the Snow Elves, tales that had terrified her as a child, and could certainly explain the cultural distaste for elvenkind.

These were the things that floated into the Skaal's mind when she saw the the unlikely pair of elves gawking at the corrupted Temple bastardizing the All-Maker's Tree Stone. One was familiar, even through the full set of chitin armor that had scared her almost as much as the man inside on her occasional visits to Raven Rock in her younger years: Teldryn Sero, a sellsword.

The other, though, was a mystery. They were tall, even for an elf, taller than their counterpart and  _ certainly _ taller than her. Altmer then, a theory backed up by the set of robes the elven woman was wearing. A mage, and probably a pretty good one, judging both by the high quality of the clothes and by the amount of wear they had seen. As she watched, the woman awkwardly retucked her dirty blonde hair behind one of her pointed ears, clearly uncomfortable with the unnerving structure and it's even more unnerving enthralled workers.

"You there! What brings you to this place? Why are you here?" The two elves spun around in surprise as she called out to them, their hands glowing with charged magicka.

"Who are you?" The Altmer asked, her voice surprisingly light and airy for her physical size. Now that Frea was closer, she could see a number of new things. First, Teldryn had gotten himself a new sword- or maybe his patron had given it to him. Black as night and gleaming with enchanted power, the ebony blade was nearly as fearsome looking as her own stahlrim ax. 

Second, this strange Altmer was much more impressive up close. She  _ was _ substantially taller than either her mercenary partner and Frea herself, by over a head. The ring on her right hand looked ancient, and glimmered with power. And was that a Dragon Priest's mask sticking out of her bag?

"I am Frea, of the Skaal." She stated, her own weapons hanging ready at her sides. "I am here to either save my people…" She sighed. "...or avenge them."

"Save them from  _ what _ ?" The Altmer asked, her Summerset accent becoming more clear in her distress. All involved parties relaxed slightly, now that it was obvious they were all on (roughly) the same team. The Altmer's skin flared with light for an instant as her armor spell dissipated.

"I...am unsure." Frea cast her gaze away, half ashamed at her own ignorance. "My father, Storn, our shaman...he says Miraak has returned to Skyrim. But that is impossible. Miraak was destroyed for turning against the dragons centuries ago."

"Trust me, I think he's back." The Altmer replied, yanking a crumpled note out of her satchel and clutching it fiercely. "He sent some of these...cultists to kill me."

Frea nodded grimly. She was unfortunately familiar- there were a few dead by her own hand just over the rise. 

"You're here alone?" Teldryn Sero interrupted with his characteristic rasp, typically blunt for a mercenary.

"There are but a few of us left unaffected by this...curse." She gestured at the enthralled workers, groaning their mantra. "Storn protects the village, and I have an amulet that protects me. But if I cannot find a way to save the Skaal…" she trailed off, and the Altmer gave her a look of sympathy uncharacteristic of her race. 

"Sounds like we both have a grudge to settle with these guys, whoever they are." She replied, extending a hand. "I'm Kiara." 

"You're missing a few things off your illustrious list of titles, sera." Teldryn cackled. "Like 'Archmage of Winterhold,' 'Harkon's Bane,' and who could forget, 'The Last-'"

"Shut up Teldryn." Kiara punched the merc in the shoulder. "I'm really no one special. A good mage, yes. An adventurer, yes. But not much else."

Frea nodded. While Teldryn's list of the elf's accomplishments was certainly impressive, the Skaal of all people understood humility, though hearing it coming from the historically proud Altmer was another surprise. 

"Well, it seems we both have a reason to see what lies beneath us." Frea replied, sheathing her axes for a moment and finally returning the handshake. "My friends are beyond my help for now. We should find a way into the temple below."

"Agreed. Let's go find this Miraak and make sure those dragons finished the job." Kiara grinned fiercely, showing off a set of sharp, pointed teeth that were nearly as unnerving as the groaning thralls. She reached into her bag and pulled out a metal mask, slipping it over her face.

"Is that...a Dragon Cult mask?" Frea was impressed, to say the least. The Dragon Cult's Priests were liches of immense power, and she hadn't heard of anyone in living memory who had managed to destroy one. This one glimmered blue in the fading sunlight, and charged the air with magical energy. It hide the elf's entire face, but Frea could still see her pitch black eyes through the slits in the mask's eyes. It was intimidating, and the Skaal wondered for a second if this was how people felt around the Dragon Priests of ages past. 

"Morokei." Kiara muttered, snapping Frea from her thoughts. "The Priest's name." She explained quickly. "Apparently, it means "glory" in the Dragon Tongue."

"How did you kill it?" Frea asked, somewhere between disbelief and genuine curiosity. 

"It was hard." She admitted, tilting her head back as she remembered. "He….he spoke to me, taunted me the whole way through Labyrinthian. Stole my magicka and used it against me. It was dangerous and grueling. My friend…" they trailed off, and Frea could see her sadness even through the mask. "There was no glory in what we did there."

"I am sorry." Frea murmured. "I will pray to the All-Maker for their soul."

"I...I think they would like that." Kiara replied. "Thank you." Her stance and voice hardened as she looked up at the twisted Temple. "Let's go show these cultists not to mess with us."

Frea had to crack a smile at that. "Let's go."

The trio descended into the temple, making quick work of the cultists that got in their way. It started as pretty standard fare for a Nordic tomb- giant, ruined monoliths, Draugr tombs, and myriad traps made it difficult, but not impossible to navigate. But as they delved further into the depths of Miraak's Temple, it turned into something...different.

"I do not recognize this statuary." Frea commented as they passed another giant edifice of some twisted….creature. Kiara nodded in agreement- even the College's books hadn't had anything quite like this. 

"There were a few before but now they're becoming more common." She continued, shuddering as they passed what looked like the head of a monstrous fish set into the wall. "It looks like they'll come to life at any moment."

Kiara nodded and winced as she reached into one of the statues' myriad mouths to pull a lever. The busts, combined with the scattered and twisted dragon skeletons strewn throughout the temple, painted an unpleasant picture of what sort of unsavory creature Miraak may have become. Kiara yanked the handle and quickly pulled her hand back.

Nothing moved for a moment as the world held its breath. Then, some ancient mechanism kicked into gear, hauling a decrepit gate open with a rasping grind. Kiara and Frea both started violently, spinning around and cursing at the noise. Teldryn, who had been facing the gate the whole time, simply laughed, and earned another slug in the shoulder from his employer.

"You two sure are jumpy." He rasped, though Frea could hear a hint of unease in his jovial tone. "You'd think we were in the middle of a Daedric temple or something."

"Daedra?" Frea asked, looking to her new partners. "You think this is all Daedric? Why would Miraak consort with a such creatures?"

"I don't know, sera," Teldryn replied, his dark eyes glimmering under the bug-like helm as he turned to face her. "But this place has Daedra written  _ all _ over it. Trust a Dunmer when they say that. We'd know."

Frea nodded, that uncomfortable realization now hanging over her head. "Well, let us move on. This could hardly get  _ more _ unnerving, yes?"

Kiara laughed anxiously, her cold eyes darting back towards the now-open black maw behind the gate. She paused to cast a candlelight spell before she lead the way deeper into the temple.

It was a thankfully short walk, or so Frea thought. They quickly emerged into a well-lit chamber, though it was still full of the disturbing statues gaping at them from the walls. Some short exploration led them to another small, circular room with a large black book on a pedestal. Frea could feel an unnatural air coming from it, and from the looks of her companions, they could too.

"This book feels...wrong." She muttered, to 2 nods of agreement. "Here, and yet….not. It may be that which we seek."

Kiara lowered her hands, the magic power in them fading. "I believe it is. Let me take a look at it."

"Be careful…" Frea warned softly as Kiara stepped forward and flipped the book open. 

Time seemed to freeze as the front of the cover hit the pedestal. Teldryn stood stock still, and every breath Frea took felt like it was of seawater. She watched in horror as a mass of dark, green and black tentacles sprang from inside the book and grabbed Kiara, pulling her into the pages.

Frea tried to shout, to warn her, to do  _ anything _ , but she felt as if her body was entombed in stone. The amulet laying on her chest suddenly burned against her skin, desperately trying to protect its wearer from the clutches of what was clearly an immensely powerful Daedra. The heat became unbearable, and as she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to cry out in pain, she dropped to her knees, suddenly able to move again.

It felt like she was crawling along the bottom of the ocean, but she could  _ move! _ She crawled towards the pedestal, the book now rapidly reeling in its prey, who still seemed stunned and frozen just as Teldryn still did. Frea reached out and grabbed Kiara's ankle just as her whole body was lifted off the floor.

"Not...without….me!" Frea growled, hauling herself closer to the book. She wasn't about to let the best hope her people had just get sucked into some hoffiric realm of Oblivion without even  _ trying _ to stop it.

The tentacles were uncaring, pulling Kiara into the book and wrapping around her just as quickly. Her last thought before disappearing into the mass of pages and darkness was of her father, and a desperate hope that she hadn't just jumped to her death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here it is!! My first Skyrim fic! Y'all honestly don't even KNOW how much I know about the elder scrolls, not to mention how much I love it, so honestly, this is a looong time coming. For some reason, this specific idea got stuck in my head, and since Frea is one of my absolute fave underrated characters, I figured what was the harm?
> 
> Anyway, this is gonna be *mostly* canon compliant, with a couple pretty obvious differences (Frea joining the Dragonborn in Apocrypha being the big one lol). I'm gonna mostly be following the Dragonborn storyline, with maybe a few diverges into other Solstheim things that involve the Skaal. We'll see.
> 
> And as a last fun fact before I leave you, you may notice throughout this fic that I personally subscribe to the theory that elves (especially in TES) are, well...kinda inhuman and creepy. They're kinda literally descended from gods, so things like sharp teeth, cold black eyes, freaky extra senses, extreme magic affinity, and other such things things should really be par for the course. Besides, what fun are elves if they aren't inhuman monsters in ill-fitting fleshsuits?


	2. Into Apocrypha

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frea and Kiara fall into the clutches of Hermaeus Mora and his servent, Miraak...

The sight immediately inside the book (if that's truly where they physically were now) was one of eternal darkness. The creeping Daedric tentacles that had pulled them into the book had disappeared, and the only sensation they could make out was the constant shuffling of what sounded like pages from a million books.

Then, in an instant, their vision flashed back into being. For a second there was a scene of horror one could hardly describe- a vast plane devoid of life, the only movement in an endless field of murmuring, chittering  _ beings _ , made of scraps of cloth and tentacles assembled in a crude bastardization of humanity. They faced a massive entity whos form twisted and changed faster than the eye could see, and as it turned its lifeless eye to the falling pair, it cut into their very souls for but an instant before they snapped back into the darkness again.

The next time the pair flickered back into existence the view was much less disturbing, though no less esoteric. They were miles above an endless vista of green and black, a twisting landscape of towers, lakes, and roads, all formed in a bizarre and distinctly inhuman structure that didn't even look like it could physically exist. Even more alarming, they were still falling, and it seemed that whatever mysterious power that had immobilized them before entering the book was still in effect. Frea realized with a start that her hand was still clamped in an iron grip around Kiara's ankle, an act of defiance to whatever entity had dragged them in here that did give her a little comfort. It wouldn't stop them from becoming two bloody smears on the alien landscape below, but a comfort nonetheless.

As if whatever creature ruled this realm could hear her very thoughts, at that very moment, the elf began to slowly disintegrate before her very eyes. It almost looked as she was being burned away by an invisible fire, skin and clothes crisping into ash before blowing away, scattered, into the air. Frea tried to call out, to curse at whatever cruel master was tormenting her even as she fell to her death, but her voice was just as frozen as her body, and she watched in horror as her partner- nay, at this point, her friend- was completely dissolved and blown away into the void.

Her magical paralysis choked a sob of terror at her sudden loneliness. She was a stoic woman, to be sure, but the sudden absence of her only support in a new, terrifying situation phased even her. It was almost a relief when the cruel master of this realm took pity on her and sent her crashing down into darkness again.

When she finally awoke, dragging her eyes open like she had been in a deep sleep, she was already standing, as if she had never been flung into this corner of Oblivion. She looked around, finding herself in what looked like one of the twisted unnatural towers she had, seconds ago it seemed, been falling towards. The walls and floors were made of a gnarled, dark metal, and plastered with thousands, if not millions, of rustling, ancient paper, as if pages had been torn from whole libraries of books. On the walls were several of the same, disturbing statues that had littered Miraak's Temple.

Well, if nothing else, that proved they were in the right place. Perhaps the answer to her people's plight was hidden here, amongst the thousands of book this place seemed to have made into its foundation. The hallway she had landed in seemed to have only one place to go, and a slight rumbling under her feet seemed to urge her to get moving, so she drew her axes and stalked slowly down the hall, eyes wide open for any new threats.

The hallway curved and inclined upwards as she went, bringing her around to what she had to assume was the top of the tower. As she turned one final curve, she could see the sickly green sky of this realm up above, and hear what sounded like a man speaking. Nord, by the sound of his voice, but friend or foe, she could not tell.

"...you have slain a great many dragons I see. And yet…"

Frea crouched down and crept upwards until she could see peak over the edge of the floor, to see what was happening atop the tower. A man clad in black and gold robes stood prominent in a small crowd of the disturbing tentacled creatures they had seen at the beginning of their fall, and even more distressing, a number of dragons perched on twisted sculptures and towers behind him. The sky above this tower was a dark green, and directly above, a huge void swirled, with numerous strange eyes and tentacles swirling about within. Frea shuddered and focused back on the man. In addition to his robes, he was clad in a golden mask that looked quite similar to the masks the cultists back on Solstheim had worn. Could this be…

"You have no idea the power a dragonborn can wield!" He spoke again, interrupting her thoughts. It was now at last that Frea saw who he was addressing, and suppressed a gasp: Kiara, her elven companion, lay in a crumpled heap on the ground before the man, looking physically fine but clearly disoriented. 

"Mul...Qah Div!" The strange man loosed a Shout, and in a flash, his body was covered in a shimmering spectral set of dragon scales, coating him like armor. His eyes glimmered through his mask as he spoke again. 

"This realm is beyond you.You have no power here. And it is only a matter of time before Solstheim is also mine. I already control the minds of its people. Soon they will finish building my temple, and I can return home." 

Frea gasped again. So this man  _ was _ responsible for the plight of the Skaal, and the other inhabitants of the island, it seemed. It must be. This was Miraak, the legendary First Dragonborn, of the oldest tales. 

Kiara was struggling to get to her feet, and Frea made her decision. This man obviously held immense power, and she had no doubt that he would best her in open combat. But he was the one who had enslaved her people, and now stood over the defenseless form of her new friend. She had to at least try. 

"Miraak!" She called out, standing fully and jumping up onto the flat surface of the tower's peak. "You enslaved my people, the Skaal, and now stand ready to strike down my friend. I shall not allow it!" And with that, she charged the Dragon Priest.

She made it shockingly far, in her later estimation of this admittedly stupid moment. Kiara would insist it was brave, but charging straight at a man with the blessing of a powerful Daedra was never anything but stupid in her mind. She was only about 10 feet away from him,  _ almost _ within striking distance, when he reared back and Shouted again. 

"Iiz...Slen Nus!"

This Shout seemed much more powerful than the last, echoing throughout the tower and sending a massive wall of frost and magic at Frea that she couldn't have hoped to avoid. It slammed into her, coating her armor and skin with ice that burned as it touched her, slowing her down until she was frozen to the spot. Only her Nordic proclivity for ice and snow kept her from going into shock and succumbing to the creeping frost encasing her body.

"Another who doesn't know her place." Miraak spat derisively, walking up and inspecting her icy tomb. Frea's amulet burned even hotter against her chest as he got closer, until she was sure it might just melt through the ice and free her to strike the man when he didn't expect it. He turned and walked away before she got the chance, approaching the large blue dragon perched on the ground behind him.

"Send them back to where they came from." Miraak commanded, the small crowd of Daedric beings drifting closer to the two invaders. "They can await my arrival with the rest of Solstheim." He finished as he jumped up onto the dragon's neck, clearly intending to ride the creature. As the dragon started to take off, the creatures approached, conjuring waves of magic in their myriad arms. Each casting of the spell that washed over the two seemed to suck the life right from them, draining them of strength and will until they finally succumbed to unconsciousness again.

Frea cracked open her eyes to a harsh light, much brighter than the dim and sickly atmosphere of the Oblivion realm. She squinted against the light until things finally came back into focus, revealing that she was back in the room they had started in, with a very concerned Teldryn Sero looking down at them. She looked over and saw Kiara in a similar state, pulling her mask off and squinting against the light.

"Are you alright seras? You touched that book and both...collapsed. Could see right through the both of you." 

"I'm fine Teldryn." Kiara muttered, stuffing the mask back into her bag. "Frea, are you all right? Why in Oblivion would you rush him like that?"

Teldryn looked confused but held his tongue, trusting Kiara would fill him in later. Frea sat up and shook her head.

"The book put me where I was for a reason. It seemed foolish to waste an opportunity to strike at our foe when I could have." She replied, shrugging. "Though it would seem he is...much more powerful than I imagined." She rubbed her neck sheepishly. "I may have been over my head."

"I appreciate the intent." Kiara replied with a genuine smile, staggering over and extending a hand to help her up, which Frea gladly took. "But it would seem Miraak is too strong even for the both of us now."

A thought was bugging Frea on the edge of her mind. As she pulled herself up, it came to her again. 

"Dragonborn...Miraak is Dragonborn, yes? And what he was saying to you…" She looked at her companion with newfound awe. "You are Dragonborn, are you not? And if the dragons themselves have returned...you are the  _ Last _ Dragonborn."

Kiara smiled sadly. "Yes. I don't like to advertise it, but I am. I can only hope that that gives me an edge over Miraak."

Teldryn chuckled, startling them both for a second. "Yes, my employer here is quite humble. I have seen her do many impressive things. Slay ancient liches, shout dragons from the sky! All very impressive."

Kiara's cheeks and the tips pf her ears turned pink and she slugged the Dunmer again. "Shut up! You know I don't like talking about it." Frea almost laughed, the scene seeming very comical knowing that the woman before here was the Last Dragonborn of legend. How did that song go again? Kin of both wyrm and man? Powers to rival the sun? She hated to admit it, but this seemed like a bit of an anti-climax.

"I think we should go to the Skaal village." Frea suggested gently, prodding her way into the squabbling. It had the desired effect and the two got refocused. 

"Yes, we should. Perhaps your father will know something that can help us." Kiara replied thoughtfully, and Teldryn nodded in agreement. "Lead the way Frea."

"Gladly." Frea replied, and the two quickly found the secret exit to Miraak's Temple and finally-  _ finally _ \- made it back out to Solstheim's ashy air once again. Breathing it in deeply, Frea wasn't sure she'd ever be this grateful for the pungent atmosphere of this part of the island ever again. And while her brush with Oblivion had terrified her, the knowledge that she had the legendary Last Dragonborn on her side was a comfort.

Maybe they weren't lost after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here it is! Sorry for a lack of notes, but it's real late where I am rn lol. Enjoy! Chapter 3 will come after winter break starts this weekend.


	3. The Fate of the Skaal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our unlikely trio reach the Skaal village, and set out on their next journey to free the Skaal from their slavery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a note and a warning here at the beginning, this chapter will contain some mild body horror-ish elements that, while light, may make people uncomfortable. If you are one such person, you can skip the second half of this chapter without a lot of consequence. I've also updated the tags to reflect this.

Anyone out wandering Solstheim's northern wastes at this time would've been treated to quite a sight: an unlikely trio, two elves and a Nord, trudging across the snowy plains and hills on their way to the isolated Skaal village. The Nord strode quickly and easily through the drifts, unbothered even when the frozen muck rose to her thighs. The first elf followed more slowly, looking for all the world like a fearsome Reaver Lord in his chitin plate and a sword of ebony, black as night and sharper than sin. The last elf lagged behind, shivering madly in her soaked robes, but still towering over her counterparts even when hunched over from the chill. 

"I hate Solstheim." Kiara whined, glancing down at her ruined boots. "How do you people live here? This is miserable!"

"Not all of us can live in Summerset all our lives." Teldryn Sero replied, his grin heard but not seen through his insectoid helmet. "Some of us had our homes blown up or buried in a little volcanic eruption you may have heard about." He finished nodding towards the ever-present shadow of the smoke plume billowing from the Red Mountain. Kiara deflated even further at the thought.

"I'm...I'm sorry Teldryn. I didn't think of that." She muttered, ashamed. Yet another surprise from her, Frea catalogued. A high elf with empathy.

"Well I didn't join you for your eloquence." The Dunmer mercenary replied, cackling. "Just your full coin purse!"

Frea turned to her two new companions, half a smile breaking her normal stoic gloom. "I am sorry our home isn't to your liking. Lucky for you, we're almost there. See that?" She point towards a green light rising just over the next hill, its hue sickeningly similar to the color of that dreadful Daedric realm in a way that made her stomach turn. "That comes from the Wind Stone, where my people- my friends- work against their will." She turned back, her face now deadly serious. "They  _ must _ be freed soon."

The two nodded back in agreement, and Frea, for all her concern, felt a pang of remorse for crushing their light hearted joviality. She hoped that, if this all ended well, there might be a chance for that sort of happiness again. But for now, she had to focus on freeing her people, and maybe, if she could, helping her friend defeat this...beast that threatened her home.

A bit further on, and the edge of a town came into view, surrounded by a cloud of blowing snow, and with a strange light rising into the heavens. Frea suddenly sighed in what seemed like relief, drawing the attention of her elven comrades. 

"Storn had raised a barrier around the village to protect those of us left. That it still stands is a good sign." she explained, pulling her hands from where they had subconsciously drifted near her axes. "We will be safe here, for now."

Kiara nodded, able to ignore the bone-chilling cold for the moment. "Good. Let's go speak to your father."

Frea nodded, and the group quickly made their way into the village center, where the few remaining Skaal huddled around their shaman, who rose as he saw his daughter approach.

"Frea!" He called as she approached him.

"I have returned Father, and I think there is yet hope!" She replied as she quickly embraced her father, and the pitiful group of Skaal who remained free.

"What news do you bring?" Storn rumbled, glancing somewhat distrustfully at the two elves. "Is there a way to save us?"

"I don't yet know father. But I have seen things, and brought someone I think can help us." She looked back, and Kiara stepped forward somewhat nervously: she knew the races of men, the Nords especially, harbored a deep resentment for her race, but hoped that the Skaal would accept her help and not shun her. "She has confirmed that it is indeed Miraak who is behind our suffering."

"I feared it would be so." Storn sighed.

"But how is that possible father?" Frea asked frantically, the too-recent memories of that terrible place forcing their way back to the front of her mind. "After so long…"

"There is much we don't know, I'm afraid." The shaman answered. "But now tell me, who is she, and how can she help us?"

"I am Kiara." The elf replied, striding forward and offering her hand in what she hoped was a display of helpfulness, not arrogance. "I'm...I'm the Last Dragonborn. Miraak's cultists are trying to kill me, and your daughter and I met at his Temple. We entered some realm of Oblivion and saw him personally but...he was far too powerful."

"Dovahkiin? Truly?" Storn seemed surprised, by her race or by her story, Frea wasn't sure. "That would certainly explain all the dragons. And it might give us an edge. Dragonborn, if you truly wish to help us, you must travel to Saering's Watch. There is a power there that is yours for the taking, and it will help you free our people."

"Father, I am going with her." Frea cut in insistently. Storn gave her a concerned look as she rushed to defend herself. "We....we went through a lot in Miraak's Temple together. And I believe she is our best bet at helping our people. I must help her."

"In any other time I would say your people need you here." Storn began, his face softening. "But for once, it seems it is best you follow your heart. Save our people Frea." With that, he knelt again and returned to his meditation.

The trio left the Skaal village and headed north, into the snow and the fading sunlight, their hearts heavier, but still more hopeful. They made it several miles into the wastes, passing by the Wind Stone, which Frea stopped at for a moment to stare sadly at her enslaved family and friends.

"We'll free them." Came a voice over her shoulder, startling her. She spun around to find Kiara standing behind her, looking down at her with a determined eye. She reached out hesitantly and put her hand on the Skaal's shoulder. "I'll do whatever I can to break this spell. I'll go back in that book and kick Miraak's ass myself if I have to."

That brought a smile even to the stoic Nord. "I have no doubt that will eventually be necessary." She laughed. "But I hope this power Storn knows of can help you."

Kiara nodded and glanced back at Teldryn, who maintained a healthy distance from the Stone. "It's getting late. If we hurry, we can get to Snowclad before the sun is down, set up a camp for the night. Assuming you don't mind spiders." She grinned again, her pitch black eyes glimmering in the fading light. 

"I think I will manage." Frea replied, unsure how to respond to the continued contact on her shoulder. After a second, Kiara herself seemed to get cold feet and slowly pulled her hands away.

"Let's get going." The elf turned and, after a second of catching up with Teldryn, who was sniggering lightly for reasons he apparently refused to share, the unlikely trio set off to the west, arriving, as predicted, at the Snowclad Ruins as the sun disappeared behind the mountains. A few of the strange magic spiders who skittered around the ruins ran out to greet them, but a few shots of lightning from a gleeful Kiara zapped them into ash, and sent the survivors scattering back into the depths.

A few minutes unpacking turned the desolate entryway to the ancient tomb into a cozy campsite, A fire crackled merrily in front of the imposing door, and the three had set up their bedrolls in a small circle in the cramped space. As they sat eating their rations, and the bits from a skeever that had been damn-near cooked just from the fireball Kiara had used to kill it, they finally decided now was the best time to finally get to know each other. After all, dropping into a hostile Daedric realm was definitely a bonding experience, but it didn't help to learn anyone's favorite color or anything.

"You fight pretty well with those, for a shaman." Kiara noted, nodding at the set of axes Frea had set down next to her bedroll. "Where'd you learn that?"

"Our old chieftain, Skaf the Giant." Frea replied, reminiscing. "He was a giant bear of a man, and he terrified me when I was younger. But I was a very angry child, and he taught me how to harness that, to put my fire to good use. He was a great man. I miss him like a second father."

Kiara nodded slowly, smiling sadly. "You Skaal are like one big family, huh? You all support each other. What about your mother? Where is she?"

"She died when I was young." Frea admitted softly. "Part of the reason I was so restless as a child. She was caught in a terrible snowstorm when fetching firewood, and just… never returned. You must understand, our life here is a constant hardship. Such things happen often."

"Then why do you stay?" Kiara asked, genuinely curious. Her life in the Summerset Isles had been one of relative luxury in the warm and balmy Altmer capital, seemingly the polar opposite of this desolate island.

"We Skaal are bound to the land here." She explained, struggling a little to find the words describe it. "It… seems strange to you, I'm sure. But for us, the thought of leaving our village is equally strange. Our life is here, with all its hardships."

Kiara  _ almost _ got it. There was indeed something compelling about this strange and humble life the Skaal led, especially compared to the militancy and court intrigue of the Thalmor regime. It had been part of why she had left.

"You Skaal are crazy." Teldryn cut in, speaking in jest but still unable to truly understand. "As soon as I can afford to leave this island, I'm going back to Skyrim. Even their civil war is preferable to...this."

Frea rolled her eyes. "And you Dunmer barely understand this island that you hardly even consider a home." She refrained from getting angry: she could hardly expect these strangers to understand, after all. 

Teldryn huffed, seemingly disappointed he hadn't been able to get a rise out of her. "I… suppose it's probably better than Morrowind. At this point, at least. Black March is no picnic either."

Kiara laughed. "You both have it rough. I was raised in Alinor in the lap of luxury. All my life I was given the greatest tutors, the most valuable tools, everything....but I still left. I could've been head of some Thalmor faction, or taught in Alinor's Mages' Guild. But I didn't want any of those things handed to me. So I ended up in Skyrim to...I don't know. Prove myself… to myself."

"Now you sound like you could get along with these crazy Nords." Teldryn laughed, and Frea nodded. The Dunmer was half joking, but the desire to earn one's own accomplishments was certainly something the Skaal held highly.

"There's a lot more Skaal in you than you think." Frea noted, smiling gently. "And to me, you have more than proved your worth." Almost as soon as she had answered, she yawned deeply: the events of the entire day had exhausted her deeply, and she was nearly falling asleep in her armor.

"You two need sleep." Teldryn cut in again, standing and tossing the waste from his food into the fire. "You've been through a lot. I'll take the first watch." He continued, with an unusual amount of care in his voice for a ruthless mercenary. Kiara nodded and packed her things away in her bag, clearly trusting the man to watch her back, so Frea figured she could trust him too. She stood and began loosening the straps on her thick Nordic armor, pulling the gauntlets off and tucking them into her bag. The boots followed, and then the helmet, but the heavy chest plate would be more of a problem.

"Kiara, could you grab that strap for me?" she asked over her shoulder, the large bear-head pauldrons keeping her from doing it herself. The elf glanced up from where she was facing away from her, very busily looking through her bag for...something.

"Oh! Uh, sure." She stood up, her movements awkward with her long limbs. She walked up behind her and after a second of hesitation, fiddled with the necessary buckles, allowing Frea to slide her pauldrons off and pull the cuirass over her head.

"Thank you." She said softly, setting the discarded armor down so it would be in easy reach. The thin furs she wore beneath the heavy plate would be more than sufficient to sleep in, but would provide little protection if they were attacked. Kiara, it seemed, was happy to simply sleep in her robes, though she had taken off her boots and set them by the fire to dry out. Her Dragon cult mask similarly peeked out from her bag, but after a moment's hesitation, the elf quickly moved away from her and shoved it in further and kicked her bag away from her bedroll. The two laid down, and in the dying glow of the fire, quickly faded off to sleep.

Frea woke with a start some hours later, the sun now fully gone from the sky and the twin moons high in their arc. She was surprised Teldryn hadn't woken them to take the next watch, as it had clearly been quite a few hours. The fire had burned down to embers, but even in the dim light, she could see that while Teldryn was still gone, it appeared Kiara had left too, her bedroll rumpled and empty.

Dazed and groggy, Frea sat up and looked around. "Kiara?" She muttered as she pulled herself up. "Teldryn?" She made her way out to the tomb entrance and saw Teldryn sitting where he had been when they had first gone to bed, on a log some yards from the ruin, by the ruined cabin at the base of the mountains. 

"Teldryn!" She called, but received no response from him. He remained stoically sitting, with his back to her, and his torch still clutched firmly in his fist. "Teldryn!" she called again, trudging out into the snow towards him. "Where's Kiara?"

The Dunmer didn't answer her, and while she guessed for a second he may have fallen asleep, the realization that he had removed his helmet and was still holding up the torch pushed back against that theory.

"Teldryn?" She asked more cautiously as she came up behind him. "Are you awake?" She grabbed his shoulder somewhat insistently, growing more concerned by the second. "Teldryn!"

He snapped around to stare at her, and the first thing she saw sent a shock of terror through her. She cried out and fell back into the snow as the Dunmer stood and slowly approached her now prone body.

His face was twisted into a cruel visage that mirrored some of the beings she had seen during her time in the book, the most damning of which were his eyes: sickly green, and with two sets of irises floating within them, almost identical to the terrifying eyes that appeared with the grasping black tentacles in Miraak's realm.

Frea crawled backwards away from the man as quickly as she could, stumbling to her feet in her haste to get away. Teldryn- or, the creature that used to be Teldryn- staggered towards her with a stiff, unnatural gait, as if whatever thing had twisted him into this abomination was unused to walking.

Frea was frozen in sheer horror, unable to speak or even move from her position on her knees as the creature approached. He reached out towards her, and she realized with a shiver that a number of black-green tentacles were snaking out from beneath his armor, as if some Daedric creature was somehow... _ inside _ him. As he approached closer and closer, a sudden noise brought him to a stop, and caused both of them to start violently, staring out into the dark.

A figure shuffled into the light, and Frea almost sobbed in relief. Kiara, still in her robes and wearing her Dragon Priest mask, wandered out of the dark and spurred the Nord woman with enough bravery to move again.

"Kiara!" She shouted, relief crashing over her. "Help me, please…" She almost choked on her pathetic plea, shivering in a deep fear that the stoic Skaal didn't even want to admit to herself. But as the taller elf approached the pair, her heart dropped into her gut: something was deeply,  _ dangerously _ wrong.

Frea staggered to her feet as the Dragonborn approached, reaching up to grab her mask with jittering, staggered movements. The Nord took a slow step back, then another.

"No...." she moaned pitifully, backing up until she felt her back hit the cold stone of the ruins again. "No, no, no, no…" Both Teldryn and Kiara were approaching her slowly, their clumsy, staggering gaits bringing them closer with every passing second. Kiara grabbed her mask fully, and pulled it off in what seemed like slow motion, revealing a mass of tentacles and the twisted remains of a mortal face, identical to the floating abominations within the book. "No!"

Frea let out a sob of mortal terror as the pair of corrupted fiends backed her into a corner, Kiara's hand reaching out and slowly caressing her face, before the slimy, unearthly tentacles uncoiled and did the same. Shaking with revulsion and horror, Frea could hardly even think of praying to the All-Maker, for it seemed that no god was anywhere near them at this moment in time. The former Dragonborn leaned forward and looked directly into her eyes with her own, which now looked more like an empty void than the sparkling night sky they had resembled when she had laughed earlier today. Frea had to close her eyes rather than look at it any longer, as she opened her mouth to-

Frea snapped awake to the sound of a piercing and ghastly scream, one that she wasn't even sure was her own. She immediately snatched her stahlrim axe off the floor, and was halfway out of bed, an instant from slamming the weapon into the first thing that moved, when she realized Kiara was still sleeping besides her, but screaming and thrashing in obvious fear and distress.

_ A dream _ , Frea realized, immediately dropping her axe and trying to school her racing heart.  _ Just a dream _ .

Teldryn suddenly appeared standing over them, having heard the choked screams of despair. "Sera!" He rasped in concern, dropping his drawn sword and moving towards his fitful patron. Frea forced herself to move as well, smashing her fear at her own dream down to help her friend.

"Kiara!" she called out to her, grabbing her shoulders firmly in the hopes of waking her. "Kiara!" the second shout did the trick, the elven woman's eyes snapping open and instantly filling with tears as she shot bolt upright.

"Gods...Miraak...Lydia…" she was wheezing with every word, holding back open sobs. Frea said nothing but simply let her fall into her arms and weep over her shoulder, almost inconsolable and incoherent with fear. Teldryn knelt besides her and put a firm and comforting arm over the elf's shoulders, his face grim. His silence belied his familiarity with this sort of situation, if Frea was judging his look right.

As she held her friend in a tearful embrace, she was finally able to slow her breathing back down to normal, but the stark images of her own nightmare hung over her like a dark cloud. It was clear that Miraak had not let them escape from him unscathed as they had hoped.

"She's had nightmares before, but this is the worst I've seen." Teldryn muttered to her, confirming her suspicions. "I was afraid this might happen if she met another Dragon Priest."

Frea remembered Kiara's comment about the mask she carried from before, and knew she had lost someone to… what was his name? Morokei? If that shadow still hung over her, it was no wonder that being at Miraak's mercy as she had been had shaken her deeply. After a long while, Kiara seemed to have calmed down, and allowed her companions to lay her down to sleep again. Teldryn produced a small black potion bottle from his pack and had her take a few drops on her tongue, and she drifted off quickly into a still twitching and fitful, but hopefully more restful sleep.

"Thank you Teldryn." Frea murmured, shuffling over to grab her things. "Get some sleep. I'll take the next watch." The Dunmer nodded, handing off his torch. While she remained exhausted, Frea knew she could handle guard duty for the night. There was no way she would be nodding off again tonight. Frankly, she was afraid she might never want to ever again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we go! A much longer chapter than I planned, but I wanted these both to be in one, so you can get one long chapter instead of 2 short ones. We get a little bit more of a look into our Dovahkiin's emotional health which is....not great. There's some fucky stuff in Skyrim yall, and I really feel like not enough TES fics address the psychological toll some of those things must take on a person. So that will certainly be something that will become a trend here, if not a major plotline. If that's for you, well, keep reading on.
> 
> On the other end of the spectrum, there is going to be a romance in here. Somewhere. Eventually. You'll know it when you see it.


	4. Trek to the Watch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a night of horror, the trio sets out towards Saering's Watch.

It seemed like an eternity but the new day slowly rolled around, the bright sun finally starting to peek over the hills. Frea sighed as she stood and stretched her cold legs: as she had guessed, staying awake wasn't a problem. She was only mildly more rested than she had been last night, but she knew she could push on, and hoped that once her village had returned to normal, Storn might be able to help both her and her elven friend with their nightmare problem.

She grabbed the burned down torch, which had faded several hours previously, but it had been light enough at that point to go without, and shoved it into her pack. She stretched once more and tramped back through the snow to the ruins.

She wasn't surprised to find Kiara still sleeping: she seemed to be a little less restless than when she first dozed off last night, but she was still shivering even bundled in her numerous blankets. What was at least mildly surprising to her was Teldryn: he had pulled off most of his armor but, it appeared, had spent the rest of his night sitting over his shuddering patron, sword in hand. He turned and nodded to Frea as she walked in.

"She's been restless, but she's stayed asleep." The Dunmer murmured, seemingly none the worse for wear for his all-nighter. "But I doubt she's in the best mind right now. We should let her sleep."

Frea was torn. On the one hand, she wanted to reach Saering's Watch and claim the power that Storn thought could help the Skaal. That was her goal, her  _ mission _ , her service to her ever-dwindling people. But on the other, she had only scraped the surface of the hells her friend had experienced, and knew that  _ whatever _ it was that she had seen in her dreams last night must have been crippling in its horror. The last thing she wanted to do was force her into a deadly war against an ancient man with a powerful Daedra behind him.

Fortunately, she was freed from having to make the decision: at that very moment, the Altmer stirred, rolling over and cracking open her eyes. Frea could see right away that the star-like glimmers that normally lit them from within were dim, cold specks, a sure sign that what had happened to her last night was far from forgotten.

"Talkin' about me are you?" she muttered, in a half hearted excuse for a joke. Teldryn rolled his eyes and Frea smiled at her sadly. "That's kinda rude, isn't it?"

"Sera…" Teldryn sighed, his use of a formal title belying his less-than-professional level of concern. Frea knelt down beside her bedroll and held out a hand.

"We're both concerned, and rightfully so." Frea replied as Kiara took her hand. "I had terrible dreams last night, but it seemed as if yours were…much worse."

The Dragonborn sighed as she allowed the Nord to help her up. The potion Teldryn had given her last night had helped her get some actual sleep, relatively dream free, but even now hours later, it still unsteadied her enough that she had to reach out and grab Frea's shoulder to keep from stumbling back over.

"Sorry…" she murmured, further steadying herself on the wall of the ruin. After a second she pulled her hand back away and stood stable by herself. "I should be better now...I think."

Frea didn't believe her, and by the look in their eyes, neither Kiara or Teldryn believed it either. But Kiara stubbornly moved on, grabbing some breakfast provisions from her bag and stoking up the dying embers of the fire, very pointedly shutting herself out of that conversation. As much as she hated to see her partner and friend close herself off like this, she couldn't blame her: she wasn't exactly keen to relive her own nightmare. 

Teldryn was clearly unhappy with how closed-off his patron was being, but didn't force the issue, sitting down himself and eating in a silence bordering on grumpy. Frea grabbed her own provisions from her bag--some dried saltmeats and bread that she had shared with everyone--and made her own breakfast. The group as a whole was eerily quiet throughout, so much so that the Nord could even hear the distant birds and, if she listened closely, the chittering of the spiders that hid within this ruins walls. 

Desperate to break the silence, Frea quickly pulled out her map of Solstheim, finding both themselves and their goal on it. "We will have to head north until we reach the river, then follow it upstream past Benkongerike. Hopefully the spriggans will leave us alone, but we will almost certainly have to deal with the Rieklings." She grimaced, and Teldryn scowled at the news.

This, at least, reengaged the Altmer, as Frea was happy to see. "What's so awful about Rieklings?" she asked, familiar with the creature's reputation but having never faced them herself.

"Solstheim is lucky to be free of the Falmer that menace Skyrim." Teldryn cut in, as the only party member to spend significant time in both places. "But the Rieklings are almost as bad. Little goblin-like things, filthy creatures."

Kiara shuddered. "Eugh. Honestly, they don't sound quite as bad as the Falmer, but let's hope we don't have to find out."

Frea nodded- she had never seen a Falmer, but she knew of the tales, and of their legendary ferocity and pain. The Rieklings, for all their savagery and disgusting habits, lacked the true evil of the Falmer, for which she was at least a little grateful.

"My fear is the Spriggans." The Skaal continued, pointing out the near-infamous headwaters of the Harstrad River. "This spring is sacred to them, and they will attack any that approach. We must be careful."

The whole party had finished their meal, and were mostly all ready to go. Teldryn quickly pulled his chest plate on as Kiara shook out her boots and Frea packed up everything into the bags. In only a few minutes, the group set off again.

Frea was disappointed that their bad night had put a damper on the normal friendly banter- the trio walked in relative silence, the gently crunch of the snow the only constant sound, with the occasional question on directions or a curse from the Dragonborn as her boots, once again, failed to keep the snow off her legs and feet.

It took less than an hour to reach the headwaters, which they could see down the mountain through the trees. As they trudged down the hillside towards the mountain pass that would lead them west to Saering's Watch, they had to pass perilously close to a gathered circle of the nature spirits, who stared at them angrily, but made no move to attack them. The group hurried on, and shortly further down the mountain saw the telltale signs of Riekling habitation: the distinctive huts clustered around the entrance, and even more damning, the collected clutter and detritus of the island: burned books, broken barrels, bottles of alcohol at varying stages of emptiness, and a hundred other pieces of junk, with the odd treasure like a gemstone or spell tome scattered between.

"Ugh." Kiara finally broke her silence and grimaced in disgust, earning sympathetic looks from her comrades. "How do these things  _ live _ like that?" She muttered as they crept closer, watching the small creatures wandering around their camp with their strange gait and small spears. "I can smell it from here."

"At least they aren't Falmer." Teldryn drawled, and Kiara had a hard time disagreeing with him: as nasty as these little goblin... _ things _ were, her memories of the Snow Elves' Forgotten Vale made her shudder with revulsion.

"You have a point…" she muttered as they drew closer. The Rieklings still hadn't seen the group, but unfortunately pretty well blocked their path west: they could barely see the peaks of the Nordic cairns over the hills, but they'd have to fight it out with these Rieklings to get past. "You two ready?" 

Frea looked over at the elf, and for the first time since the previous day, saw a smile creeping across her face. She pulled the hood of her robes down and reached into her bag, but kept the Dragon Priest mask firmly buried out of sight at the bottom, instead pulling out an almost dainty silver circlet, which she perched upon her head like a tiara.

"How do I look?" She asked, twirling in the snow in a moment of whimsy that made Frea's heart flutter. "Let's go do some spring cleaning."

Teldryn sighed loudly, and before Frea could ask why, Kiara had stepped through the trees and lobbed two fireballs into the mass of huts and fences. The Dunmer mercenary took a second to roll his eyes-- Frea couldn't see under the helmet, but the movement was clear-- and ran out to join her, his midnight black sword flashing against the snow. Frea shook her head in bemusement before hopping over the low hedge that shielded her and joined the fray as well.

Kiara and Teldryn cackled as they sent sword and spell flying into the mass of enraged Rieklings, who pitched spear after spear towards them in retaliation. Frea quickly caught up and with a yell, charged into the crowd, sweeping her twin axes low to catch her diminutive foes. 

A thundering Shout rang out behind her, echoing off the hills and obscuring the words, but the effect was dramatically clear: a huge spout of fire, like those that the fearsome dragons blasted from their fearsome maws, blasted across the tundra, setting several huts on fire and blowing some of them away. The Rieklings, well routed, fled back into the mouth of Benkongerike's cavern, but as Frea watched, she let her attention slip for just a moment...but a moment too long.

She turned just fast enough to see the hulking bristleback hurtling at her, a Riekling mid-war cry mounted atop it. She braced, but couldn't dodge, and the hard hit drove the air from her lungs and sent her flying back into the snow, knocked completely off her feet. Her axes were knocked from her hands and landed heavily in the snow, just out of her reach as the fearsome boar reared up over her.

"FREA!" She heard the shout and saw Kiara sprinting towards her from the corner of her eye, both hands ablaze with crackling blue lightning. She brought them together and launched a blinding salvo of sparks at the rider, her eyes blazing with power. The strength of the spell knocked the bristleback clean over, shuddering as the lightning coursed over it until it lay still. 

Frea struggled to catch her breath and sit up as the Altmer ran to her side, kneeling down in the snow next to her. "Are you ok?" She asked, her breaths laborious from her sprint. Teldryn was close behind her, head on a swivel to check for any Rieklings trying to take advantage of this change in the battlefield dynamic.

"I'm fine." Frea assured her, sitting up and quickly finding the Altmer's arm around her back. "Just winded, that's all." 

"Here, hold still." Kiara gently held her in an upright sitting position with one arm and conjured a healing spell in her free hand, setting it against the Skaal's chest plate and letting the Restoration magic wash over her.

"This isn't necessary, but thank you." Frea said quietly, but allowing the magicka to restore her. There was a sudden "Ouuugghhh!" that snapped both of their attention over to the fallen boar, where Teldryn pulled his sword out of the snow.

"Still alive." The Dunmer explained, whipping the blood off his sword and into the snow before sliding it back home in its holster. Kiara turned her attention back to the her healing, and let her magicka flow into her friend again.

"Necessary or not, you just took a hit from a wild boar." Kiara chided, sliding her hands to Frea's ribs, where the bristleback had rammed into her. "Forgive me if I'm a little worried." The Skaal winced as the magic prickled at the touch-- Restoration magic was a boon, and something she wanted to be more skilled in herself, but it was far from painless. She was just lucky she hadn't done much more than cracked a rib.

"I've had worse." She replied, a smiling sneaking onto her face. It may have been an awful situation, but she had to admit, being able to engage with her two new friends like this after a morning of silence was refreshing. "You should've seen me after I accidentally wandered into Kagrumez and got my leg broken."

"Don't start with a war wounds fight with Teldryn around." Kiara laughed, her eyes lighting up once more, Frea noticed. "He'll win, trust me."

"And you haven't even  _ heard _ the worst of them yet." The Dunmer called from his spot on the ridge looking back at the cave. "I've been saving the best for after you come back all high and mighty from beating Miraak."

"How lovely to see you care so much." Kiara snarked back, her magic fading from her hand. She didn't seem to notice for a minute, keeping her hand on frea's side, and her arm around her back, until the shaman started to sit up again.

"Oh, sorry." She muttered, pulling away and quickly turning around to occupy herself with her bag again. Frea got to her feet and stretched, feeling refreshed and substantially less painful. "I do hope you appreciate that." Kiara continued as she got up, now soaked from the waist down from the snow and melt water. "Now I'm even  _ more _ wet."

"I'm so sorry for your pain." Frea replied in a deadpan voice, earning a surprised look from Kiara and a raucous laugh from Teldryn.

"She's picking up sarcasm rather quick, don't you think sera?" He cackled, trudging back over to the pair. "I didn't think you Skaal believed in the term."

"You'd be surprised what the Skaal understand." She replied, falling back to a cryptic answer which set Teldryn off laughing again. Kiara looked stunned, but a smile slowly crept over he face, large and revealing of her pointed teeth. 

"You've been holding out on me Frea." She wagged a finger at her jokingly, as the whole trio set out to the nearby ruins. "You can banter with the best of them!"

"I'm learning from the best." She pointed out, at which both of the pair grinned. "But don't either of you dare ask which one is better. That's an argument I'm  _ not _ getting into."

The two begged, threatened, and tried to sweet talk her into giving an opinion as they continued their trek towards the ever-approaching towers of Saering's Watch, but Frea was obstinate: whatever war these two were having, she wasn't getting in the middle of it. However, as they approached and heard the distinctive roaring Shout of a dragon, their conversation fell off.

"Magnus's flaming ass." Kiara swore as they turned the corner and witnessed a spectacle: a massive, ancient dragon, with robust curling horns and scales that looked older even than the stones of the ruin, in open combat with a small legion of Draugr, lead by a fearsome Death Lord who, as they watched, answered the dragon's Shout with his own, a thundering sound that staggered even the mighty wyrm. But it was a losing battle: every Shout from the dragon burnt handfuls of Draugr where they stood, or sucked the very life from their ancient bones. Soon, only the Lord remained, and with one final cry, the dragon sent a final tongue of flame over the resilient corpse and burnt it to a crisp.

"Well it looks like the big brute did most of our work for us." Kiara hissed as the dragon alighted down upon the large Word Wall at the peak of the ruins. "But now  _ we _ have to kill  _ it _ ."

As if on cue, and like it had heard her very words, the dragon's eyes snapped open and it turned towards their hiding spot, spreading its wings and taking flight once more. "Trinimac's haunted shi-" Kiara didn't even have time to finish her vulgarity before the dragon swooped overhead, a blast of frigid ice smashing into the group and blinding them all with an eternity of frozen white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there everyone! Sorry for the kinda cliffhanger, but its midnight on Christmas Eve...Eve, and I gotta be up for holiday stuff tomorrow (woo, Christmas!). The next chapter may be a little bit, given that, but it should definitely be out by early January!  
> I hope you're all enjoying so far! I have decided to bump the rating to Mature, just to be safe, cuz there *is* gonna be some discussion of trauma and minor character death and such. Nothing too traumatic, but I obviously wanna play it safe. Happ holidays everyone!


	5. Breaking the Chain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kiara and the gang keep up their fight to Saering's Watch, both physical and emotional, in their quest to save the Skaal.

Frea was the first to recover from the freezing breath the dragon had rained down upon them, helped by her Atmoran ancestry. She pulled her two axes free of their sheathes and spun around, keeping an eye on the beast as it flew over their heads and circled over Fyrkte Peak before turning back towards the trio and flying at them at speeds she could hardly comprehend.

He (it? They? Did dragons have gender?) was almost on top of them before before her two comrades snapped free of their frozen daze and readied themselves. Kiara sent twin bolts of lightning streaming into the sky, where they scattered against the dragon's ancient scales and skipped like stones on water over its great body. It roared in pain and dipped one wing low, throwing up clouds of snow and almost slamming into Teldryn, who dove out of the way in the knick of time. It blazed past and made another turn, this time spreading its wings and landing hard in the thick snow some yards away.

Frea and Teldryn dove forward, the snow only hindering them slightly as they charged the land bound beast. Frea reached it first but hesitated, unsure where to strike. Teldryn had no such reservations, and immediately swung his sword viciously at one of the wings, his ebony blade tearing into the relatively thin and weak flesh. Frea followed his lead and struck the other wing with a dual strike. She was surprised by how resilient even this was, but was glad she could do  _ something _ against the primeval monster.

Kiara threw bolts of magicka into his hide, causing the creature to writhe in pain as it tried to throw off its attackers.

"Wah us Thu'um, Dovahkiin! Bolog aaz!" It roared, followed by a blast of fire that sent Frea and Teldryn scrambling for cover. The light and heat faded and revealed the Altmer had stood her ground, a powerful ward shimmering before her.

"You will fall to  _ mine _ !" She growled, presumably in response to the dragon's scornful words, face twisted in an angry grimace. She shook the magicka from her hands and breathed in deeply, gathering her strength.

"Krii!"

Her voice rang out, oddly low and authoritative, and projected a wave of purple energy into the dragon, which writhed and roared as it was struck. Frea saw her chance and charged forward again, swinging her stahlrim ax in a violent arc that tore through the dragon's (relatively) fragile wing membrane. She was surprised when the weapon ripped into the wing with much more ease than it had previously, tearing completely through the flesh and opening a large hole, to which the dragon thrashed and screeched even more violently. Teldryn approached and did the same, effectively grounding the beast.

"Stand back!" Kiara warned, about a second too late. The wyrm flailed about in a last desperate struggle, flapping its tattered wings violently in a futile attempt to get off the ground once more. In its frenzy it knocked both Frea and Teldryn back with a powerful wall of wind and flesh. Knocked off her feet, Frea saw a flash of blue sky before a sudden whiteout, and her next breath was full of snow. She heard a cry and an ugly crack as Teldryn hit what she assumed was one of the walls of the ruined Watch.

She caught her breath for a second ( _ second time she'd had the wind knocked out of her that day _ she thought) before clawing at the snow above her, digging her way out of the drift she'd been lucky enough to land in. After a second of scrambling she finally broke the surface, and squinted against the sudden sunlight.

When she opened them finally and her vision equalized, she was worried for a minute that she had died and entered Sovngarde. The tattered wyrm twisted and spat curses, black blood dripping from between its teeth and ruined wings. Facing him, Kiara glowed and sparkled with electric power, tendrils of magicka snapping against the snow with spouts of steam. 

"Unslaad krosis, Dovahkiin!" The dragon growled, blood sizzling against the snow. "May your sorrows never cease!"

The Dragonborn's black eyes blazed like twin stars, and, although Frea may have been seeing things through her shock and pain, she could've sworn she started floating--only barely, but  _ floating _ \--off the ground. She didn't justify the dragon's dying curse with a response, simply looked upon him scornfully, raised her hands… and unleashed a power worthy of the gods themselves.

Gouts of electric fire her outstretched hands, merging and mingling the power of a powerful storm into a single burst, which broke against the dragon's scales and skittered across his whole body. It roared in anguish, twitching and blasting a geyser of flame high into the frigid Solstheim sky. It shuddered and fell to the ground, dead, but Kiara didn't stop, draining her magicka while pouring an endless stream of lightning arcs into its corpse, until even the scales started to cook away into ash. 

Finally, her magicka ran out. The glowing corona around her body faded, her eyes dimmed, and she fell to her knees in the snow, panting hard. She scrabbled with her bag and pulled a small blue bottle free of its depths with twitching hands, draining its contents into her mouth in seconds and tossing the empty flask aside. She staggered to her feet, and after a second of viewing the carnage, saw Frea's form half buried in the snow and stumbled towards her.

It took her a second, and she almost fell once, but she quickly reached the Skaal and grabbed the hand she had broken through the snow with, pulling her up out of the drift with surprising strength for her slim frame. Frea nodded in thanks and bent down to catch her breath as Kiara summoned a familiar golden orb of light in one hand and pressed it to her chest.

"You really don't appreciate these ribs, do you? I've healed them twice just today." She joked, earned a small smile from the Nord.

"Oh, don't worry about  _ me _ , sera." A pained shout from Teldryn some feet away, surprising them both. "I'm too  _ pretty _ to die." He sat up against the wall and called forth his own healing spell, letting the light wash over him and straighten his back with an unfortunate crunch.

"You can handle yourself, Teldryn." Kiara shot back, making the dark elf roll his eyes.

"So can I Kiara." Frea muttered, standing up and gently brushing her friend's hand away. "I appreciate it though."

"Clearly not enough to keep yourself out of trouble." Kiara joked, pushing her hand back against her armor and letting the magic flow until Frea gently stepped away from it again.

"Don't mind her, she just worries." Teldryn cackled as he limped towards the pair, his gait slowly straightening as his magic did its work. "Not about me though, apparently. Or anyone else. Just you."

Kiara slugged him in the shoulder, cutting off his laughter and turning it into a choked groan of pain, and luckily distracting both of them long enough for Frea to school the pink tinge from her cheeks. 

"I suppose I should be flattered." She replied, fetching her axes from where they fell in the snow. Before anyone could reply, however, they were distracted by the golden glow emanating from the fallen dragon's skeleton.

Kiara sighed and straightened herself, clearly expecting this development. Teldryn watched, equally experienced. Frea could only watch in a not-insubstantial amount of awe as the beast's remains glowed brighter, quickly outshining even the sun. This power swirled around the fallen creature and then shot off...away from their assembled group and into the ruins.

That brought a look of confusion to the duo's faces. Clearly, Frea thought, they had expected something else. Kiara's face dropped from confusion to fear, and as Frea looked out towards where the dragon's magic had flown, she saw why.

Stepping from thin air, and directly in the path of the stream of magic released from the winged beast's body, was a glimmering spectre of a human form. As it walked further from whatever mysterious portal it had entered the world through, its outline became clearer, and a quiet moan of despair from the Altmer in the group confirmed who it was in Frea's mind.

The spectral form of Miraak stood tall as the power flowed into his body, seeming to solidify his presence. If before, he had seemed like a ghost, it now looked like he was that much closer to stepping physically into the world. 

He turned to face the group and the effect was instantaneous. Kiara frantically grabbed at Frea's hand, who took it gently and let her near-crush her fingers in a fearful iron grip. She could feel the elf trembling, and hear her breath hitching as panic set in. 

"It takes a strong will to command the soul of a dragon." The apparition spoke in the echoing accented speech of the First Dragonborn, and Kiara flinched violently. "Perhaps you are not worthy to bear the Stormcrown,  _ Dragonborn _ ." His scathing tone made it clear how low he thought of his adversary. His taunt finished, and the dragon's soul now gone, he turned and faded quickly back from wherever he had come.

The instant he was gone, Kiara shuddered and fell into Frea, her strength fading in the face of overwhelming panic. The Skaal caught her, and Teldryn was quickly at her side in gently helping her sit down in the snow. She leaned heavily on Frea's shoulder, burying her face against her as she tried to school her frantic breathing. It took a several minutes before she could speak again. 

"I'm sorry…" She murmured, sitting up but keeping her spot leaning against the Skaal, while Teldryn watched anxiously. "I didn't think I'd see him again this soon. Caught me off guard." Neither of her companions really accepted that as an answer to what was going on with her, but, much like in the morning, she seemed stubbornly stuck to her point. Whatever was really happening, she wasn't ready to truly discuss it.

"Are you sure you're ok sera?" Teldryn asked, his voice softer than most people would ever hear it. Kiara nodded, trying to sit up further but getting held back by her other follower.

"Kiara, don't push yourself." Frea muttered, holding her shoulder and keeping her from getting up too quickly. "It is obvious that you aren't alright. If you run off like this-"

"No. Frea, I need to help your people. I need to help this whole  _ island _ ." She brushed the Skaal's arm off her and stood up shakily. "I'm sorry for worrying you both, but I'm  _ fine _ ." She grabbed her bag from where it fell in the snow, and stalked off towards the watch, and the large Word Wall that stood at its peak. Teldryn and Frea shared a look of unease, but quickly grabbed their things and followed. 

The Altmer was already surveying the story etched into the stone wall as they reached her, focusing on a single word that neither of them could read. 

"Gol…" she muttered, reaching into her bag without looking and fishing out a small book. "Gol? Bhar Fin Gol-ah….Bhar the Earth Hunter. Earth? Gol means earth?" Neither of her companions spoke, not wanting to break her concentration. After a moment of meditating on what she was reading, and the occasional murmur of surprise, Kiara stood and put her things back away.

"I think I have it. It's a little harder to figure these things out without a fresh dragon soul, but I think this Shout will...bend the earth to my will. Whatever that means."

"This must be what my father means." Frea interjected, suddenly understanding. "The All-Maker stones! Miraak controls them now, yes? They are of the earth...you could free them from his spell!"

Kiara considered it for a moment. "Yeah, I imagine I could. Not as cool as what I was picturing, but it might be a bit more useful. C'mon, let's go find out!" 

The trio quickly gathered all their things and set off towards the Wind Stone. They moved quickly, making good time across the tundra, and reached the standing Stone just as the sun started to set behind Solstheim's mountains. As usual, the enslaved people of the Skaal village chanted eerily as they worked endlessly on the strange structure around the Stone.

Seeing her friends like this unnerved Frea once again, but this time she was more hopeful. Both Storn and Kiara believed that this Shout she had received from Saering's Watch would be able to break this curse. She watched anxiously as Kiara circled the structure, finding a good place to try.

"Well, time to see if this works." The Altmer muttered, clearing her throat. She waited for an opening when the thralls had wandered out of her way, took in a deep breath, and Shouted at the Wind Stone,

"Gol!" Compared to other shouts, it didn't really look as if anything had happened. The only immediate response was a slight tremble of the earth beneath them.

"Huh." Kiara muttered. "Maybe I need more words…" As soon as the words had left her lips, however, the ground shook more violently, and in a crash, the structure Miraak was having built around the stone glowed and shattered, falling in pieces to the ground. As one, the thralls' eyes cleared, their chanting stopped, and they all blinked in confusion as if they had just woken from a deep sleep.

Frea couldn't contain the swell of happiness in her heart as she saw her people suddenly freed. She grabbed the elf and threw her arms around her in a joyful embrace.

"Thank you, Kiara." She murmured to the surprised elf, who hesitantly returned the hug. Frea stood up on the tips of her toes, which still didn't bring her to the Altmer's full height, and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek. "All-Maker bless you."

Kiara blushed violently, struggling to put together a response as Teldryn chuckled in the background. However, a sudden, even more violent tremor shook everyone present from their reverie. 

"Don't thank me yet." Kiara muttered, trying to compose herself and ready her magic. "Looks like Miraak didn't like that too much."

She was right--seconds later, a fearsome roar resounded through the air, and a massive explosion of dark water revealed a massive creature. Its head looked frighteningly similar to the statues from Miraak's Temple, and its body was like that of a massive fish or lizard, easily 10 feet tall. As it roared, masses of black tentacles exploded from its maw and from the ground, snapping Teldryn and Frea into action. They, along with the rest of the Skaal village, armed only with pickaxes and hammers, charged the creature and attacked it ferociously, as Kiara threw twin bolts of lightning at it from afar. With this combined effort, it only took a minute to fell the creature, who collapsed and near instantly started rotting where it fell, smelling of beached fish and poison.

As it fell, the Skaal started quickly filing back to their village, eager to finally get home. They all nodded or murmured a thank you to Frea and Kiara as they passed, any skepticism they had of the High Elf's presence put off by her deeds in freeing them. Frea greeted them happily, sharing hugs and smiles in equal measure, much happier then either of her companions had seen her in days. Once she was sure her people had set off safely, she returned to her companion's side, beaming brightly.

"I cannot thank either of you enough." She said as she approached. "If there is  _ anything _ you need from me or my people, you will have it."

"A hot meal would be nice." Teldryn interjected, licking his lips. "And maybe a real bed." Frea laughed.

"I'm sure we can do that. You are both welcome to stay the night. We will make room for any Skaal-Friend." The trio set off towards the village after the line of other Skaal, content in the afterglow of a job well done.

"I think the best thing you could give us…" Kiara thought aloud. "Would be your continued presence with us. Think so Teldryn?"

"I'd agree, yes. She makes a welcome change from sassy mages." Kiara rolled her eyes, but looked hopefully at Frea, who laughed.

"I am sure I can do that, especially now that my people have returned. It'd be an honor to join you."

"Good." Kiara beamed. "I think you'll be a great help." With that, the trio set off to the feast the Skaal were no doubt preparing in their honor. Miraak's shadow still loomed over them, and the rest of the island, but after all they had been through, it would be a well deserved break. The First Dragonborn and his Daedric master could wait one more night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are again! As much as it seems like this could be the end, rest assured that this definitely isn't. We have far more trauma to get through, and like 5 or 6 different side quests! We do have a happy ending for a chapter for once though- enjoy that while it lasts. I'll see you all fairly soon, I have a fair chunk of free time before school starts again.
> 
> For reference, here's dragon language translations (courtesy of thuum.org, your one stop shop for Skyrim dragon tongue resources)  
> His first line, which Kiara responds to, essentially means "You will fall to my Thu'um." (hence her response with the contrary. "Bolag aaz" means "beg for mercy."  
> The second bit is actually a fairly commonly used term by draugr, and means "Unending sorrow." This can either be an apology ("I'm so sorry") or a curse (which is what this version is lol)


	6. Victory?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our trio celebrate their first victory against Miraak, but the darkness still lingers...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick trigger warning before I send you off here, some mild gore in this chapter, and probably a few other from here on out. I'll give you guys warnings, ofc, but just so you all know.

The Skaals' Greathall was warm and inviting, a welcome change from the frigid tundra outside. A massive fire crackled in the central pit, which most of the village had gathered around, shedding heavy fur coats and weapons in a pile near the door. The two elves followed Frea in, Kiara having to duck slightly to get under the low lintel, much to Teldryn's amusement. They divested their weapons in the pile (the Dunmer mercenary rather reluctantly) and the elves turned to follow Frea further, but were cut off by another Skaal, a tall woman with dark hair, who addressed them with a strong voice.

"So you are the two elves who Storn told me about. I am Fanari, chieftain of the Skaal. I hear we have you to thank for our freedom." She spoke forcefully, but with genuine relief and gratitude.

"As much as I'd like to take credit, I'm just along for the ride with these two." Teldryn cut in, nodding towards the Altmer and Frea, who was having a hushed discussion with her father as she pulled off her armor pieces. Kiara sighed, clearly not comfortable in the spotlight.

"I...yes, I suppose he's right. I'm Kiara, the Last Dragonborn. But I couldn't have done anything if not for Frea and Storn here." She quickly answered, hoping that would get the the eyes of the room off of her.

"Dragonborn, we thank you." She continued, extending a hand which Kiara hesitantly took. "You have freed us, and the All-Maker's Wind Stone, from the grasp of a horrid enemy. May his blessing be upon you, and our eternal thanks with you." The other Skaal murmured acknowledgements of the same, and arranged themselves in a loose ring around the blazing fire. Frea joined her elven comrades soon thereafter, and food and mead were passed around in excess.

"I'll give them one thing," A tipsy Teldryn muttered a couple hours later, as the fire was burning down and the first people began trickling out to return to their homes for the first time in weeks. "These Nords know how to have a good time." The Dunmer had been slowly losing most of his armor throughout the feast and had left most of it scattered around the room. 

Frea chuckled, watching her libated friend. "I think you just drank more than anyone else," she pointed out. It was true- the elf was by far the most inebriated here, and the majority of the empty mead bottles were piled around his feet.

"I s'pose the mead makes it easier to deal with you all." He pondered, taking another drink and falling off into his own thoughts. Kiara laughed and pushed him away as he unconsciously leaned against her shoulder.

"He's gonna be real grouchy in the morning." The Altmer giggled, letting her partner slump to the floor. "I shouldn't let him drink so much."

"I'm a free elf, y'know." He slurred from his spot on the floor. "You can't tell me what ta do…"

"You heard him." Frea chimed in with a laugh. "No one tells Teldryn Sero what to do."

"Damn right." He muttered before falling silent again. The next noise he made was a tremendous snore that sent both of his companions into fits of giggles. 

"He's got the right idea." Kiara yawned, stretching and dropping her empty plate gingerly on the floor. "Should we uh...find a spot for him?" she nodded towards the passed-out Dunmer, mildly concerned. Frea waved off her worries.

"Leave him. He wouldn't be the first to pass out in here, and Fanari can help him when he wakes up. That and, well…" She added sheepishly. "There's not a lot of other places to sleep for visitors."

"I was gonna ask about that." The Dragonborn pondered aloud. "I hate to inconvenience you all…"

"It's really no trouble. You can stay with us in the shaman's house." Frea replied as they slowly made their way to the front door. The two grabbed their things from the pile by the door, which had by now shrunken considerably. The decided to brave the harsh cold without jackets, rationalizing that it would only last a second. The walk was brief, but dark and frigid, and they quickly shuffled into the warmth of the shaman house. The central fire was already crackling, and it seemed that Storn had come and gone already, though Frea didn't seem surprised. 

"My father has no doubt gone to make sure the Wind Stone doesn't have any lasting damage." She explained, dropping her armful of plate armor and rations next to one of the beds. "You can sleep here. I'll get a bedroll."

"You don't hav-" Kiara started to complain, but a knowing look from the Skaal shut her up quickly. "Thank you. I appreciate it."

"You deserve a restful sleep." Frea almost scolded, pulling out her bedroll once again and setting it besides the bed. "And I'm not going to get in the way of it." 

The Altmer nodded like a sheepish child, setting her things down and pulling off her boots to once again set beside the fire. She flopped down in the bed, having to pull her legs up some to account for her height and the short length of the bed. "Thank you Frea." She muttered, already dozing off, the days events and the large meal making her drowsy.

"I should be thanking you." She responded, busying herself with things Kiara couldn't, and didn't have the energy to see. "Get some sleep Kiara. You need it."

"Mhm." She murmured, eyes already closing as she drifted towards sleep. She heard Frea walk back towards the bed, but before she could even consider that, her mind went blank and her vision went dark as her dreams finally claimed her.

Kiara's eyes shot open some time later, and she sat up, curious what had roused her. A look outside showed almost nothing but pure blackness, even the twin moons dim behind what looked like an intense fog. She looked around the dimmed room, and found herself alone: Storn was still missing, and it looked like Frea had joined him, her bedroll rumpled and empty. She gently rolled out of bed, looking around the small house. Seeing no one, she sat and pulled on her boots once more, intent on at least finding where they had gone.

She hesitated before pulling on one of several heavy fur coats lying around the house, remembering how frozen the air itself had been when they had made the quick jaunt from the Greathall. The arms were too short for her, falling about halfway up her forearms, but it was better than nothing. As ready as she could be, the mage reluctantly cracked open the door and stepped outside.

As soon as she stepped outside, she felt this trip was a stupid idea: the wind howled around her and the cold cut right to the bone. She looked around and found what looked like half filled shoeprints in the snow heading away from the house, and sighed before following them out. 

The trail led to the edge of the village, heading north towards the Wind Stone, but trailed off when it entered the deeper snow beyond the village. Kiara looked around and sighed before turning to trudge back to the house, when someone grabbed her shoulder in an iron grip.

The Altmer yelped and spun around, hands already alight with blue arcs of lightning. The figure in front of her stumble as she pushed the hand away, and for a second, she didn't recognize them. Then, they straightened, and with a trickle of relief she realize it was Storn. But as soon as that relief came, it was gone: the shaman was clearly panicked, and had a dark fluid that looked distressingly like blood running down from his forehead.

"Dragonborn!" He gasped, panting heavily as if he had just run some distance. "Help! You must help her!" He grabbed her shoulders again, a look of pure panic in his eyes. 

"Storn!" Kiara balked, her heart rising in her throat. "What's wrong? Where's Frea?!"

"The Stone! Quick-" His desperate pleas were suddenly cut off with a sickening sound, one of flesh rending and bone breaking, and the Altmer watched in horror as a sword blade, black as midnight and dripping with blood, slowly slid out of the front of his chest, to which he sputtered and coughed up a mouthful of bright red blood.

"Storn!" Kiara wailed as the man collapsed into her arm, the sword blade pulling free of his torso. The shaman struggled to breathe, more blood dripping from his mouth as he wheezed his last words. 

"Save……..Frea…….."

"Storn! Storn!" Kiara cradled the dying man and looked up at the culprit--and what she saw chilled her to the bone.

Standing tall and proud before her, his black sword glistening with blood and writhing with small black tentacles, was Miraak himself. Unlike the visage she had seen earlier today, this form did not glow, or have the same translucent aura, but stood in the snow as a terrifyingly concrete presence. Kiara stammered and almost felt her heart stop as his eyes bored into her being, as they had back in his Daedric home. 

"You see the price of your arrogance?" He scoffed, turning away and leaving her in the snow. "Almost as soon as he had spoken, he vanished, seemingly in the blink of an eye, leaving the terrified Dragonborn alone in the snow with only a body and footprint to prove he was ever there.

She was paralyzed for a moment--petrified with fear and grief, holding Storn in her arms. Only her adrenaline burst and her desire to get to Frea brought her to her feet, gently laying the dying shaman in the snow.

"I'm so sorry Storn…" She whispered, fear and sadness still clouding her mind. "But I need to save your daughter."

After a moment of silence, she stood, face stony. Her heart was still hammering in her chest, and she wasn't sure she could fight Miraak even if she found him, but she had to try. She broke into a dead sprint northward, towards the Wind Stone, the cold and wind and snow hardly hindering her in her desperation. It only took her a few minutes before she could see the Stone, glowing a gentle green against the night sky, came into view.

She ran up to it, magic ready in her hands, frantically looking around, but found nothing but the gentle pulse of light from the Wind Stone. She stepped into the shallow pool of water that surrounded the monument, sweeping back and forth, searching for any sign of Frea, or even Miraak.

Before she could ponder this, she suddenly fell, the ground in the water beneath her feet disappearing and sucking her down into the black waters below. She had no time to cry out before it was smothered by the frigid water, but as soon as she had fallen in, her eyes snapped open and she found herself somewhere else entirely--somewhere she had never wanted to return to ever again.

She was standing in a familiar room, a large open atrium in a Nordic tomb in the heart of Skyrim. Internally, she was petrified, but like being trapped in a nightmare, she was compelled to walk forward, walking up a set of stone steps towards a far-too-familiar stone bridge. In almost a trance, she hardly noticed the man standing across it, taking the place of the opponent she remembered.

"Hello again,  _ Dragonborn _ ." Miraak's voice echoed through the room, stunning Kiara out of her trance. She almost immediately froze halfway across the bridge, the realization of where she was, and who was there sending her into a panicking shock.

"Morokei?" Kiara mumbled, memories flashing before her eyes. She could almost see the lich's familiar blue mask superimposed over Miraak's golden one.

"Not quite. I am not so easily defeated as my brethren." He scoffed, stepping closer to her. "You will have to work harder to earn  _ this _ mask." He reached up with a gloved hand and tapped his golden mask.

"Why...why are we here?" Kiara stammered, shocked she could even speak at all. 

"I have a present for you, one Dragonborn to another." He chuckled darkly. "Someone you haven't seen in a long time." He stepped aside to show his first of two captives, kneeling on the ground with arms bound. It was another person that Kiara had never thought she'd see again.

"Lydia…" She gasped, her knees weakening, though she kept herself on her feet. Her former companion smiled sadly at her. "You...you're d...dead! I  _ watched _ you die! I saw that thing…" She couldn't finish, a massive well of emotions--relief, grief, panic, joy--cutting off her air and threatening to send her spiralling into a breakdown.

"This gift doesn't come for free, _little_ _sister_." Miraak's belittling term of false endearment feel almost on deaf ears. Kiara looked up and saw the second captive, and her heart nearly stopped again. 

"Frea...gods Frea, I'm so sorry, I couldn't stop him, I couldn't save Storn, I'm so, so sorry…" She was rambling, the recent memories of Storn's lifeless body and the crimson blood splattered on pure white snow flooding back to her. Frea simply gave her the same sad smile, as if she knew what had happened already.

"If you continue to defy me, Dragonborn, there will be consequences." Miraak continued as if Kiara had never spoken. "This is the first." From beneath his robes he produced a gleaming bronze dagger, similar to several the Altmer had seen in Skyrim, molded into the stylized form of a dragon. Simply seeing it again was too much, as realization flooded through her. She fell to her knees, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. Miraak continued without a care in the world.

"If you truly wish to defy the will of Hermaeus Mora, you will have to make hard choices." He growled, voice low. For once, Kiara couldn't tell if his anger was directed at her or someone else. He casually tossed the dagger down in front of her and squatted down, staring her down with his dark green eyes, which she could just make out behind the mask.

"So, if you want to leave this place alive, you must pick one of your friends… and kill them."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DUN DUN DUN
> 
> In case anyone hasn't figured it out, this is definitely a dream sequence lol. Can't go around killing my characters and stuff off that fast, can I? But hey, dream or not, our poor poor Dragonborn is gonna be feeling this one in the morning. Miraak's a punk bitch for pulling this stuff up, lemme tell ya.
> 
> Anyway, there's also a neat little peek into Kiara's past, which...well, it isn't happy. As I've said, there's a LOT of really fucky stuff that you're forced to do or witness in Skyrim that...would honestly really mess up any normal person. So enjoy my grimdark bs (If nothing else it serves as good angst to push the relationship I know u all are yearning for).
> 
> Funny story, I did actually once accidentally kill Lydia during the Morokei fight at the end of the Mages College questline. So, I guess I can add "based on a true story" to the tags now.


	7. The Test

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miraak's power over the Wind Stone may be broken, but his power over the realm of dreams remains a terrifying force.

Kiara was stunned.  _ Kill one!?  _ She couldn't. She wouldn't! She had already watched Lydia die right before her eyes, and Frea….no, she couldn't kill Frea, couldn't even conceive of the concept. She stared at the knife glinting in the dim light on the ground before her and felt bile rising in her throat

"I won't." She choked, voice small against the vastness of the room.

"You will, or you will die. And who will save Solstheim when you are gone? Who will beat  _ Alduin _ when you are gone?" Miraak scoffed, knowing she couldn't argue with those charges. "No, you  _ will _ do it. Not because I make you, But because it is your  _ destiny _ ."

She trembled at the words, because it's what she didn't want to hear, because it was  _ true _ . She was the destined hero, the Dragonborn, Blessed of Akatosh, all that. If she died here, isolated from the world she wanted to-- _ had _ to-- save, who else would? Who else even could?

With trembling hands she carefully picked up the knife. Miraak, for once, stood in silence and watched her, analyzed her with his piercing gaze that could even be felt from behind his mask. She stood shakily, transfixed by the bronze glimmer of the dagger in her hand, anything to distract her from the horrific choice she had to make.

She looked at Lydia first, still dumbstruck by her appearance here. It had hardly been a year since she had held her and heard her dying words on the floor of this very room, right beside the ashy remains of the monster that had done the deed. She couldn't do that again: it had almost broken her the first time, and striking her down herself was unthinkable. And that only left…

She shuddered, dropping the knife and almost retching at the sudden thought. She had to concentrate to still her shaking hands before she could pick it up, and could barely even bear to turn to face Frea after she had done so. She knelt before her captive friend and could no longer stop the tears from coming.

"Gods, Frea I'm so sorry." she gasped, pulling the Nord into a tearful embrace and pressing her forehead against her own. "I can't watch her die again…" She choked out.

"I understand." The shaman murmured, seemingly at peace with the idea. She gave Kiara the same sad smile. "I'm glad I met you, Kiara."

The Altmer sobbed openly as she held up the knife with a shaking hand. "I-I love you." She stammered, gently pressing the bronze blade against the curve of Frea's neck.

"I know." Came the response, quiet and sure. A moment's' hesitation, and the two gently leaned into a kiss, desperate and tasting of tears. It lasted only a second, but served to almost erase the horror of what had to happen for but a moment before it all came crashing back.

"I'm sorry." The mage whispered, begging for forgiveness from Frea, the gods, and even herself. She closed her eyes tightly, not wanting to see the result...and pulled the dagger across the skin and muscle of her throat.

The light  _ thump _ of her friend's body falling away from her confirmed the deed was done, and Kiara wailed softly in anguish. Before she could even open her eyes, however, she heard the light footsteps of Miraak behind her. She turned before opening her eyes, saving her the sight of the grisly results of her actions. Miraak stood before her, hand on her shoulder  _ almost _ as if to comfort her.

"You would slay a friend instead of confront your past.." He said simply. "An interesting choice. You have passed this test, Dragonborn." His voice was different from before, less scathing in its tone and with a hint of something approaching understanding. He stood in silence with her for a moment before turning and fading into thin air as he had done before. Kiara sunk back into her despair and sobbed openly, a swell of fear, grief, and even regret filling her very soul until she felt she would die from it. She would've stayed there forever, mourning her friends and her own fate, if someone hadn't grabbed her shoulder from behind.

Knowing what lay behind her, Kiara hesitated, but eventually turned, and her grief immediately turned into shock. Frea was grasping her shoulder and gazing at her sternly, her eyes ablaze with golden light. Her clothes were stained with her own blood, but she appeared unwounded. Before the Altmer could speak, could express her shock, or even comprehend what had happened here, Frea spoke.

"Kiara! You need to  _ wake up! _ "

The Altmer snapped awake with a jolt, eyes flying open to the sight of the small shaman house, two deeply concerned Nords looking down at her, both holding some kind of magical energy between them. She could feel the remains of tears on her cheeks, and could practically still hear Miraak's voice echoing in her mind.

"Kiara!" Frea exclaimed, seeing her awake. "Are you alright? You were restless, and we saw you were crying...we couldn't wake you normally."

A well of emotions built in her chest--grief, relief, despair and joy all co-mingled into one. She tried to stammer a response but couldn't even formulate what to say yet.

"Some dark power was holding you in your dream." Storn rumbled, the magic fading from his hands. "It was all we could do to pull you out."

"Are you alright?" Frea asked, concerned written all over her face. "This one seemed...worse then the last."

Kiara sat up, still in a daze of emotions, and threw her arms around the two hovering Nords.

"Thank the gods." She gasped, the pair confused but allowing the embrace. "I...I watched both of you die, I saw Miraak..." She explained softly, her voice cracking. "I couldn't help you." Frea gently wiped the tears that were falling anew from her eyes.

"It was just a dream, Kiara." She murmured, sitting down on the bed next to her. "We're here, and we're all safe."

The mage fell into Frea's arms and tried to school her breathing, still deeply shaken. Frea stayed besides her on the bed as Storn quickly gathered food, heating up a breakfast for his guests. Soon enough, Fanari arrived with a grumpy and hungover Teldryn, but right as he started to complain, he noticed the grieving Kiara and quickly shut up and approached, sitting on the bed with his pair of companions.

"What happened?" He asked softly, looking at the shuddering elf who, despite being taller than either of them, looked much, much smaller curled up on the bed as she was.

"I'm not sure. It appears Miraak's grip has extended to her dreams." Frea replied, still holding the shivering mage. "She is...suffering greatly."

The mercenary grumbled, angry at his friend's pain, but even more so at his complete inability to help. 

"Thrice-damned  _ n'wah _ ." He cursed, scowling. "Can we just kill the bastard already?"

"I'm afraid it will not be that easy." Storn rumbled as he approached, a plate with some hearty breads and a few fruits in his hands. "He has gained the help of a powerful daedra, and the Skaal's mortal enemy."

"Father! You cannot mean…"

"Yes, Frea. This Black Book you have found...I have been examining it. It is an artifact of Hermaeus Mora." The shaman put the plate down, and Teldryn quickly helped himself. Kiara sat up more, still eerily silent, and with a shadow of fear haunting her eyes, but finally seeming to engage once more with the world.

"However," Storn continued, "This is all I can tell you. Herma Mora's works are an enigma to us Skaal, one that we do not wish to unravel. But there is someone on Solstheim who might be able to help you."

Teldryn, his mouth full of bread, suddenly narrowed his eyes in suspicious understanding.

"The Telvanni? Ugh." He scoffed after swallowing, clearly familiar with, and not pleased with, the person in question.

"Yes." Storn replied. "Neloth, the Dunmer wizard, lives to the south of here. He may have clarity that we lack on the machinations of the daedra."

Teldryn sighed, but tided himself over with some more fruit. Frea, who was only remotely familiar with the Telvanni, was nevertheless excited to meet him, if only for his vast magical experience. Kiara, still silent, nodded at Storn in thanks, and the shaman returned to his business, leaving the trio alone on the bed.

There were a few moments of quiet as Teldryn tried to cure his hangover with a loaf of bread, and the other two remained entangled on the bed. After a minute, however, Kiara finally broke her silence.

"I...owe you two an explanation." She murmured softly, catching her partners' attention immediately.

"You owe us nothing, sera." Teldryn immediately replied, once more shockingly sensitive despite his usual attitude. "Your fears are your own, and you can do whatever you want with them."

"You're my friends." She replied simply, sitting up. "I trust you, and you both deserve to know." She took a deep breath, steadied herself, and began to explain her dream. She had to stop several times to collect herself, but in short order explained what she had seen...and what she had been forced to do. Only a few choice moments had been omitted.

Frea gently hugged her companion as her tearful tale concluded, and Teldryn fumed.

"We need to visit the Telvanni." He growled, clearly unhappy about the prospect. "If that crazy wizard can help us kick down Mora's door, we need to know."

"I would agree. We need to understand these Black Books if we ever want to beat Miraak...or stop this from happening again." Frea gestured gently at the Altmer besides her, who still bore a look akin to utter defeat. They both looked to her for agreement, and she nodded.

"He needs to be stopped." She agreed, finally sitting up fully and swinging her legs off the bed. "And if Neloth gives us a chance, we need to take it. But I want both of you coming with me if we find another ones of those...things." She shuddered at the thought.

"Of course, sera. I'll even do it free of charge." Teldryn cracked, managing to finally drag a smile from the elf. Frea nodded as well.

"We're both with you Kiara. This is personal now." Her face hardened for a moment, finally showing the anger she had kept locked down until now. "Let's go find Neloth."

The trio dressed and prepared themselves, and within the hour, gave their goodbyes to the cheerful Skaal, who wished them well as they trudged out of the village and towards the southern coast, where they would cross the ashlands and seek out Tel Mithryn, the giant mushroom home of the famed Telvanni wizard.

It would be a long trek, almost the entire length of the island north to south, and they had planned accordingly, bringing a small tent with them this time.

"We should be able to make it to Ashfallow by nightfall." Teldryn rasped, looking over the map. He was much more familiar with the Solstheim ashlands then Frea, who knew more of the frozen north. "We can camp outside...or inside, if you feel like tangling with the Morag Tong. Word is they've taken the citadel as a headquarters."

Kiara scowled. "Assassins. We can deal with them if we have the energy when we get there."

"Thrisk Hall is a bit further south." Frea pointed out, pointing it out on the map. "Normally, I'd suggest we stop, but....the rieklings have apparently taken it."

"Rieklings  _ invade _ things?" Kiara asked, somewhat disturbed. 

"Oh yes, if they want it badly enough. This group kicked out Hrothmund's clan a couple months ago." Frea shook her head. "Truly a shame. Hrothmund may have split from the Skaal long ago, but his kin are still family to us."

"And their mead! By the Tribunal's backsides, the mead." Teldryn cut in, distraught. "Most Nord pish is awful, watery stuff but Thrisk…" He turned and struck his chest with his fist in an over-the-top display of grief before shaking it at the clouds as if to curse the gods. "I'll never forget you!"

Frea and Kiara both burst out laughing as Teldryn grinned widely, his scarred face twisting it into a grimace, but his intent true and clear.

"I'll have to remember to help them when this is all over." Kiara managed between giggles. "Maybe we can get you some more of that mead, huh?"

"Oh sera, you're a blessing." He replied dramatically, triggering another wave of giggles from the group.

The group continued like this, the grief filled silence that had hung over them earlier thankfully broken, and the chilly air filled with their typical banter and boasts. As the hour grew later and the shadows started to grow longer in the late afternoon, they passed the border from the snowy north into the ashlands of the south, and very quickly came across a great rift in the ground, a huge crack ten feet wide, that lead down into what looked like a truly ancient and forgotten ruin.

"Tharstan spoke of this place." Frea suddenly recalled looking at it. "He seemed to think it was a tomb."

The trio agreed it was not something they wanted to delve into today--already the hour grew later, and they still had an hours walk to reach the small fort that marked their goal. Kiara made another note to talk to Tharstan about this mysterious rift in the ground, and the trio carefully edged their way around it.

A short time later, they saw the tower of Ashfallow Citadel rise above the horizon. They slowed as they approached, moving quietly, eyes wide open for the black chitin that would give away a Morag Tong assassin. It didn't take them long before they spotted one lazing about behind the fortress, clearly unconcerned and showing a remarkable lack of stealth or care for a member of the feared assassin's guild.

"How far the mighty have fallen." Teldryn drawled, watching the man in question wander through the ashy field from his hiding place behind a soot-covered shrub. "Can you believe I considered joining these idiots? Pathetic."

Kiara opened her mouth to ask about the sudden revelation that Teldryn had almost joined the  _ Morag Tong _ of all things, but stopped and stashed that tidbit away for later.

"So, what do we do? We wanna knock these guys off and enjoy a night indoors? Or camp over here?" She asked instead.

"I vote we give em a little shock and awe." Teldryn growled. "Serves 'em right for sitting on their asses like this."

"I'd agree with Teldryn, in fewer vulgarities." Frea piped in. "These "assassins" don't seem to be much trouble, and I'd much prefer being able to stay inside than out in...this." She gestured around her at the ashy landscape.

"We're all in agreement then." Kiara cracked a toothy smile and her hands lit up with crackling power. Teldryn and Frea both nodded, and quickly prepared themselves, weapons being drawn and helmets slid back on. Kiara stood from behind her bush, and before the poor assassin could even notice something was awry, a shimmering blue bolt of lightning pierced his chest, his body cooking away and armor clattering to the ground in an ashy pile.

"Well damn." Teldryn sheathed his sword again, sounding almost disappointed. "I was looking forward to giving the kid a lesson."

"You'll get another chance." Kiara waved him off and walked towards the remains, which she gently nudged with her foot. "I'm sure there's plenty mor-"

Her response was suddenly cut off with a gasp, and she sunk to her knees as an arrow suddenly sprouted from her thigh. Beyond and above, another Morag Tong assassin on the tower of the citadel drew their bow again, sending an arrow flying at Teldryn, who was barely able to dive clear in time.

"Sanguine's  _ nuts!" _ Kiara howled. The wound was painfully, but fortunately didn't seem life threatening. Frea ran towards her as Teldryn cursed in the background, sending a frigid ice spike flying into the attacker's chest, knocking him off balance and sending him hurtling off the tower, his cry of surprise cut off with a sickening  _ crack _ . 

Frea quickly reached her friend, helping her sit on the ground and looking over the wound. The arrow had shot cleanly through the muscle of her thigh, thankfully missing most important vessels, but had been left impaled, the ugly steel head sticking a few inches out of her leg.

"Hold still." Frea commanded, and Kiara quickly braced herself. The Nord snapped the head of the arrow off and the Altmer grunted, twinging in pain. Teldryn ran up to them, head on a swivel and his sword raised, checking for more outside guards.

Frea looked into Kiara's eyes, deadly serious while she was still in combat mode. "Hold on to something." She warned, and gave the Altmer mere seconds to respond before quickly yanking the broken arrow shaft free of her leg.

Kiara squeezed her eyes shut and swore violently from the shock, but quickly managed to conjure up a healing spell and pressing it to her leg, hissing gently as the pain eased.

"Are you ok?" Frea asked, her demeanor shifting back towards "normal" now that the danger was passed.

"Yeah." She grunted, pulling her hand away after a moment. "Hurts like nothin' else but it'll pass."

"Even I have to admit, I didn't expect this from these guys." Teldryn admitted. "I guess they aren't  _ all _ idiots."

Kiara nodded, mad at herself for getting nailed so easily. "The Tong as a group might be half dead but I guess we shouldn't underestimate them."

"A good plan." Frea echoed, helping the elf back up. "Perhaps we should withdraw for the night? Taking many more of these assassins on at this hour hardly seems worth it now."

Her companions nodded: they weren't thrilled about spending the night in a tent, but it was better than getting cut down by some glorified bandit getting the drop on them. They withdrew behind a copse of trees, out of sight of the fort, and quickly set up a camp, a merry little fire crackling before their two-man tent. They ate quietly, and once he was finished, Teldryn stood.

"I'll take first watch again. Kiara, there's a black bottle in my bag. It might, uh…" He trailed off, lost for words for a second. "Help with the...sleep problem."

"Thank you Teldryn." She replied softly. The Dunmer grunted in acknowledgment and set off to keep an eye on the fortress for a few hours. Frea and Kiara, both tired from the day's excursions, lingered by the fire for a few moments longer, but quickly set up bedrolls and prepared for bed.

Kiara pulled out the potion Teldryn had suggested and took a swig as Frea hauled a thick fur blanket over both their bedrolls. They both laid down, and, with the warmth of the nearby fire and the comfort of a nearby friend, quickly faded off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again! I know it's been a bit of a wait for this chapter, and I apologize, but also offer the excuse of HELLA school work (and school hasn't even started yet!). Unfortunately, this sporadic and slow update schedule may continue through this semester, as I'm working on an undergraduate thesis! Lots of work, lots of rewards, but very little free time. This, as a passion project, will probably unfortunately take a back seat, but fear not, I'll make sure it keeps going on occasion! 
> 
> As for the story, I'm still sorta following the Dragonborn questline- it gets a little murky here (lots of simultaneous objectives and such) but I hope the direction I'm going makes sense.
> 
> Enjoy Kiara's potty mouth! I have a lot of fun coming up with these curses, and while I'm sure half of em really only make sense to me, I hope you have fun with em too!


	8. Tel Mithryn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroic trio make their way to Tel Mithryn, home of the infamous Telvanni Wizard.

The next morning came and Frea awoke with some surprise to the bright morning sun. Her first thought was that, once more it seemed, Teldryn had forgone waking them for a shift on the watch in favor of simply letting them sleep. Her second thought was a realization that whatever was laying across her chest was far heavier than her blanket. Confused, she sat up, and almost laughed.

Kiara, her Altmer frame far larger than the intended size for the tent, had sprawled out in her sleep and now took up almost all the available space in the small shelter. Her legs had tangled with her bedroll and one of her feet was on the verge of sticking out the entrance to the tent. One of her arms was tucked beneath her body and the other thrown across where she  _ had _ been laying when she had gone to bed. Almost cutely, her head was nestled against Frea's chest, and as she watched, her eyes flickered open.

"Mmm, morning." The elf muttered sleepily, blinking against the early sun. She straightened herself and pulled her foot back into the tent. She rolled over and the tips of her ears suddenly burned bright red as she realized where he restless sleep had left her. She very quickly rolled back onto her own bedroll, snapped out of her sleepy reprieve. 

"Did you sleep well?" Frea asked, and the Altmer couldn't tell if it was a teasing remark or a question of genuine concern. The Nord's face revealed nothing, so after a second, she responded seriously.

"Yeah. Whatever the hell Teldryn has in that bottle does the trick pretty well." She replied, nudging the tent door open in the hopes the cold air would cool her face down. "Speaking of Teldryn…"

"He kept his guard post all night, yes." Frea confirmed, sitting up fully. "I imagine he's concerned about you...he's not alone."

_ Now _ she was serious, and it was quite obvious. 

"I'm fine." She sighed, and her eyes begged Frea to drop it. "I know I've been through a lot. But I can handle it...I  _ need _ to handle it. Miraak isn't going to stop this insanity all by himself."

"I know. And I'm with you every step of the way." Frea pledged, holding out a hand that Kiara took gratefully, scooting closer to her. "But please,  _ please _ be careful. I…" She paused for a second, not sure how to put her thoughts in words. "I don't want you to die." She finished lamely, at which Kiara laughed, the sound bright and genuinely  _ happy _ in a way that made the Nord's stomach do flips.

"I hope you don't die either. I'd be kinda sad." Kiara laughed and, after a moment's' hesitation, leaned in and wrapped her long arms around her friend in an awkward hug. Frea returned the hug and the two sat there like that for a while, the elf's head on her chest and their arms entangled. 

Kiara could feel and hear Frea's heartbeat in her ear, and it was oddly reassuring. A sign that, at least for now, she hadn't failed, and her friends were still here for her. A sudden impulse stirred her thoughts, something she felt she had to say. She opened her mouth and-

"So how are you lovebirds doing?" A sudden cackle from the Dunmer who suddenly appeared in the doorway of the tent cut off her unspoken thoughts. The two both started at the sudden intrusion, and Kiara actually jerked away from her partner.

"Shut up Teldryn." She growled, throwing her pillow at him, which he batted away with a laugh. 

"I tease sera, I tease. But still…" He grinned as he snatched his bag and rifled through it for a waterskin. "...do let me know if you two are ever...."

Kiara didn't let him finish what was certain to be an absolutely filthy joke, and kicked Teldryn in the shins, sending him stumbling back out into a snowdrift outside.

"Don't make me fire you, filthy merc." She shot at him as he pulled himself back up off the ground.

"You  _ know _ you love me." He cooed, cackling wildly as he set about packing up his things.

Kiara rolled her eyes and looked at Frea for support, but the Skaal was too smart to get involved, simply laughing at their antics as she stretched and threw off her blankets. She too grabbed her things and packed them back up, and in a matter of minutes, the whole group had torn down their camp and was ready to move.

They skirted around the fringes of the nearby Citadel--they had had enough bad experiences there to last a lifetime. Kiara scratched at her thigh as they saw the two assassins they had taken out yesterday had been replaced, the thought making the splinters left by the arrow from yesterday itch violently.

They evaded detection and kept on the march south. Within the hour they had passed near the Sun Stone, and came to a halt to watch the enthralled Reavers working away.

"...We should probably free that stone too, yes?" Frea asked, with mild distaste. Reavers were a threat to everyone, but the Skaal village had seen more than its fair share of deaths from the glorified bandits.

"We could just kill 'em before hand?" Teldryn suggested, the voice of ruthlessness as usual. 

Kiara sighed. "I  _ know _ I'm going to regret this but...let's just  _ see _ what happens if I free the stone. I mean, we know we can take 'em if it goes bad, right?"

Her companions both sighed, but didn't move to stop her. They cautiously approached the monument, the droning mantra of the Reavers hauntingly reminiscent of far too many things all three of them wanted to forget. Readying their weapons, the trio made their way through the crowd to inspect the monument.

"Alright folks, get ready." Kiara warned them, stretching her arms and breathing deeply. Teldryn and Frea prepared their sword arms and waited. "Gol!"

Once more, the Shout echoed off the stone and then...nothing. For a second, all was still, and then, just as it had at the Wind Stone, Miraak's bastardized construction exploded, and with a roar, not one but  _ two  _ of the monstrous fish-like creatures tore through sickly green portals to attack the group.

The Reavers were all stunned, arms hanging limp as their eyes cleared. Teldryn and Frea, in an unspoken agreement, split and each attacked one of the massive Lurkers, their edged weapons digging into their slick flesh with relative ease. Kiara summoned up two fireballs, and with a yell, sent both of the beasts lurching back with a flaming blast, the smell of burning meat and fat filling the air.

By now, the Reavers had collectively realized what was happening. About half of the group, with cowardice expected from bandits, had turn tail and run. The other half (the more well armed half, Kiara noted) pulled out weapons and spells, and with one cry, charged in to fell the hulking Daedra.

It went very quickly after that. Against the mage, the swordsmen, and a small platoon of Reavers, the Lurkers stood no chance. One fell, then the other, and like their Wind Stone counterpart, immediately rotted away into puddles of stinking fishy ooze. 

Then came a very brief standoff- as the Lurkers fell, the Reavers very tentatively looked at the trio who had rescued them, all three of whom remained armed and ready, with varying faces of gravity. It became very clear that the Reavers, for all their bravado, were clearly put off by the frighteningly competent group. Finally, the de facto leader, a large woman in Nordic armor matching Frea's, albeit in slightly worse shape, stepped forward.

"We, uh...appreciate your, ahem, help." She muttered, clearly not happy about it. "We'll avoid robbing you blind, for today."

"We're oh-so-grateful." Teldryn drawled, staring down some of the more weak willed members of the gang. "Don't make us regret letting you live." The reavers stalked off, wary, but grateful to be alive.

"Damn snow-backs." Teldryn hissed as they left. "I hope we won't regret that, sera."

"I think they got the message." Frea mused, clearly more hopeful. "Bandits are scum, but they aren't senseless."

"I'm with Frea." Kiara agreed, watching them walk off. "They aren't idiots."

"You'd be surprised." Teldryn warned, but decided to let it go, and the trio turned back south. Over the swelling coastal hills, they could see the very top of the giant mushroom tower at Tel Mithryn, and within a couple hours, they were approaching its base.

"Fair warning to you both." Teldryn broke the awed silence as the approached the door. "Neloth is...well, utterly insane is a good term. He'll help us, but we might just die in the process. He...has pretty high employee turnover, let's say."

That led to a couple interesting faces. Kiara seemed in disbelief, but after a second of thinking it through, and comparing that to the behavior of the mages in Winterhold, she started nodding. Frea simply seemed incredulous.

"Well, let's see what Neloth of House Telvanni has for us." Kiara announced, finally taking the first step up the front staircase. For all Teldryn's complaints, she was quite excited to meet one of the famous--or some would say infamous--Telvanni wizards. She tentatively opened the door and stepped inside, but before she could comment on the interior or the strange glyphs on the floor, she was suddenly lifted rapidly upwards as if by the gods themselves. Frea and Teldryn shared looks of concern before stepping in themselves and getting hoisted up into the tower by a blast of magically charged air. The alighted softly on the floor and saw Kiara was already excitedly flipping through a book on a nearby table.

"Does nobody  _ knock _ nowadays?" Came an annoyed voice, slightly nasally and substantially grumpy. "No matter. You've clearly come to gawk, yes? Yes, I am Neloth, Wizard to House Telvanni. And this…" The group turned and saw the man himself, an older Dunmer with a near-permanent scowl and a distinctive set of Telvanni robes. "Is Tel Mithryn."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! Sorry for the wait, and the relatively uninteresting chapter, but as I've said, I've been writing a thesis too (along with starting a Destiny fic! check that out if ur interested). Regardless, I hope you all enjoy!


	9. The Path of Knowledge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our favorite trio travel with Neloth as he descends into Nchardak in search of the secrets Miraak has uncovered.

"Master Neloth? I've heard a lot about you." Kiara quickly set the book ("Ahzidal's Descent: A History of the Saarthal Survivor") back down on the table, her eyes glimmering with excitement. For all the negatives she had heard about this mage, being a wizard herself, she could hardly contain her awe and her many,  _ many _ questions.

"So has everyone on this blasted island. What do you want?" He replied bluntly, quickly returning to his own studies. On closer inspection, Neloth looked quite good for his age--he may have been several hundred years old (elderly, even for an elf), he seemed relatively fit and lively. An orb of Magelight floated about him, lighting the tables and the intricate patterning on the front of his robes. 

"I found a Black Book. I need to know how I can find more." Kiara replied, ignoring the eyeroll coming from Teldryn.

"Found one?" That caught his interest, and he looked up from his papers, glancing into the Altmer's eyes. "Yes...and you read it too, didn't you? Don't try to deny it, you have the look." Neloth quickly cut off any response Kiara may have had. "But what else do you know of these esoteric tomes that old Herma Mora has scattered through our world?"

"Not much beyond what you've just said." Kiara admitted, shrugging. "I know they're connected to Miraak somehow, and I need to know how."

"Miraak?" Neloth paused for just a second, as if searching his mind for where he had heard the name. "That's the one all the townsfolk have been chanting about, yes?"

"Yeah, you may have noticed he's trying to drag his way back on to Solstheim." Kiara replied, seemingly proud she at least held this card over the wizard.

"Well I knew  _ something _ connected to Mora was spreading its influence around the island." Neloth snarked in return, glowering at the Altmer. "Whether or not it was the legendary 'Miraak'..." He waved his hands to emphasize his sarcasm. "...Was unclear. Though the villagers seem rather convinced."

"It  _ is _ Miraak. I have fought him myself." Kiara's face grew stony, even the man's name draining the jovial banter from her attitude. "I need to learn what he has learned. It's the only way to beat him."

"Now  _ that _ is a dangerou path indeed." Neloth replied. He seemed to take an almost sadistic glee in the fact. "Hermaeus Mora gives nothing away for free. You may end up like Miraak himself you know. You are Dragonborn just as he is Dragonborn, are you not? Two power mad  _ dovahkiin _ could be  _ very _ interesting."

If Kiara was surprised at Neloth's sudden knowledge of her dragon heritage, she didn't show it. She simply rolled her eyes at the Dunmer's seeming lack of care and crossed her arms, staring him down.

"Can you help us find another Black Book or not?"

"Oh yes, easily. They are simple to find once you know the trick." Neloth gestured vaguely towards a room behind him where, with a queasy shock, the party noticed another Black Book laying on a table behind a locked gate. "I have one of my own here that I've used to find others. But this one is  _ quite _ unconnected from this power invading Solstheim. No, you need  _ another… _ "

The Dunmer trailed off as he dug through his papers, clearly looking for  _ something _ . He muttered under his breath as he searched and Kiara's companions used this moment to observe their surroundings.

"I did warn you." Teldryn sighed. "Neloth may be a genius but he's madder than Sheogorath on a dairy farm."

"He certainly is  _ rude _ ." Frea remarked, the disdain clear in her voice. "Whether or not he  _ knows _ anything remains to be seen."

"He knows  _ something _ , that's for sure." Kiara hissed at her friends as the wizard tore through a stack of books and flung some choice Dunmeri curses at his apprentice, a nervous young elf who looked all-too-used to this. "Half these books are in languages I've never even heard of! I heard at the College that he's got a staff enchanter hidden around here somewhere that I'd  _ love _ to take a look at." The Altmer may have been sullen with the mage himself but she practically glowed with excitement looking around at his laboratory. 

"Yes! Here." A shout from Neloth broke off their conversation and drew the group to the wizard, who was holding up a tattered notebook from a table. "This Book will have what you seek. I could never access it myself, but maybe together we can unravel what the Dwemer left behind."

"What do the dwarves have to do with this?" Teldryn asked, suspicion clear. 

"What  _ don't _ the dwarves have to do with?" The mage shot back. "But forbidden knowledge was a certain speciality of theirs. Another Black Book exists in the reading room at Nchardak, that I….could not open myself. But perhaps together we can crack open this mystery. Follow me."

In only a moment the Telvanni snagged a traveling bag off a chair and stepped off into the tower leading back down to the ground, his levitation runes gently carrying him away to the door. The trio shook off their shock at his sudden burst of speed and quickly followed, rapidly making their way through the ash towards the gleaming golden towers of a Dwemer ruin on the eastern horizon.

Neloth moved incredibly quickly for an elderly elf, blazing the trail through ash and dust that grew to thigh depth at some points on their trail. The ruins grew closer and closer and in a matter of a couple hours they were close enough to see the Reavers camping on the bridges leading to the massive front gate, some yards out in the glimmering waters where the Sea of Ghosts met the Inner Sea moving up from distant Morrowind.

Once they had come to a stop before the first of several half-ruined bridges, Neloth finally turned back to them.

"I locked the front gate to keep out ignorant meddlers last time I left. We'll have to make our way through them now to get back in. The Book is right inside but as you'll see…" he turned back to glance at the assembled party. "Just out of reach. Quickly now. Time is wasting."

"He talks very much…" Frea muttered as the Telvanni strutted off across the bridge. "...Yet says very little."

Kiara had to agree with that one-- he was the most talkative member of the group by far yet had shared very,  _ very _ little about himself, their surroundings, and even their goal. She very quickly set off behind him, with Teldryn and Frea trailing behind, and the four made relatively quick work of the bandits in their way.

"The Dwemer of Nchardak were fond of using these control cubes." Neloth explained as the Reaver Lord fell with a deathly scream into the sea. "We will need to gather several of these from the ruins to reach the Black Book. You'll see what I mean when we get inside."

Some fiddling with the gate and the strange arcane cube the wizard had produced from his bag soon had the imposing gate sliding open smoothly and shockingly quietly. They stepped from the bright midday sun into the cool and dark reading room. Kiara's eye adjusted and she was almost immediately struck by a feeling of familiar dread as she looked down into the glass case set in the floor and saw yet another of Hermaeus Mora's dreaded Black Books.

"Huh. There it is." The Altmer muttered, her eyes darkening. Frea stepped up to her side and grabbed her hand, gently squeezing it as if to remind her she was there. Neloth, it seemed, either didn't notice or didn't care about his fellow mage's discomfort.

"Yes. So tantalizingly close...but no magic will open that case. I've tried. We need to go further in." The wizard turned and, as abruptly as he had set off before, disappeared into a dwarven elevator leading deeper into the ruins. Kiara hung back for a second, and her companions gently moved around her.

"Are you alright sera?" Teldryn asked softly. Frea nodded, glancing at her partner with concern.

"I'll be ok." She muttered, shaking her head as if to clear it. "But you two are going in there with me. I can't do it alone again."

"Of course." Frea whispered, squeezing her hand again. Teldryn nodded in agreement but grinned and couldn't stop from cracking a joke.

"I charge double for Daedric realm excursions y'know." He cackled, sparking Kiara to roll her eyes and Frea to give the Dunmer a smack on the arm.

"Always so supportive." Kiara sighed. "Don't make me fire you, Sero."

"Fine, fine. I'll give you the "friends and family" discount. Full service package, all planes of Aetherius and Oblivion, one low flat rate." The merc suggested as they made their way over to the elevator. "It's the best deal you're gonna get."

"Oooor I could send you packing back to Raven Rock and hire Jenassa again." Kiara fired back and the mercenary pouted as Frea laughed.

"I'm hurt sera, truly." Teldryn rasped as they finally stepped into the elevator, where an annoyed Neloth stood impatiently by the lever, which he quickly pulled as soon as they were all on the platform.

"If you all are finished." He grumbled. "We can get to work. Much of Lower Nchardak is flooded. We will need to find more control cubes in order to operate the pumps, and eventually, the boilers pushing steam to the reading room." The elevator gently settled at the bottom of its path and the bronze gate slid open with a grind that suggested it hadn't been used in centuries. "Let's get to work, shall we?"

The next few hours were a messy, grimy toil in the dank depths of a long forgotten dwarven archive. Even in areas where the pumps were working, the city stank of the fetid water that had been laying in it for so long, and swims through the oil-slicked depths were common. It seemed every step they took awoke more and more Dwemer automatons, and while the group made quick work of them, it seemed the tide was endless.

Kiara broke the surface of the greasy water with a gasp and slammed the last of the control cubes down on the platform before her before pulling herself out. A quick blast of magic sunlight from a spell dried her completely, but the faint smell of copper and oil clung to her robes and she sighed.

"I'm  _ never _ gonna get the smell of this place out." She sighed, and Frea smiled sadly as she grabbed the mechanical cube and set it in a pile near the other four they had collected. She and Teldryn, due to their armor, had been relegated to automaton duty, and with Neloth "directing," the Altmer had been forced to do most of the dirty work.

"I may have a spell for you." Neloth replied as he checked the pile of cubes. "But that is for later. We have all we need to proceed."

The group gathered at the center of the platform in the Great Chamber--four boilers sat before them, and the water in the depths of the cities rose to the very edge of the stone circle on which they stood. Each of the boilers had a small receptacle for the control cubes. Reluctantly, each of the four members of the group picked up a cube of their own and stood before one of the boilers.

"Alright." Neloth ordered. "All together now. And watch for more animunculi." Each of the four slid the control cube into their respective boiler, where they clattered loudly as they engaged. There was a moment were the whole room was silent except for this light humming, and then all hell broke loose.

Within seconds, dozens of dwarven spiders swarmed from pipes and gates in the ceiling and walls. Off to the right, a handful of spheres plunked into the water and, half submerged, rolled rapidly up the stairs onto the central platform. Directly ahead, across the depths of the water covering the majority of the city, a massive metal grate that they had all assumed to be part of a wall slowly dropped down as a bridge, revealing a monstrous Centurion glowering at the group, steam spouting from its mouth.

"Steam centurion!" Teldryn growled, whipping out his sword. Frea pulled out her own axes, and the two mages readied spells as the small army of automatons closed in.

Neloth turned and engaged the swarm of spiders clattering down the walls from behind them. His fireballs blazed hotter than a furnace and melted several of them to slag where they stood, but more kept coming. Kiara hurled twin fistfuls of lightning at the invading Dwemer spheres and struck one back into the water, where it quickly sank in a bubbly trail of glimmering oil. Frea and Teldryn shared a look, steeled themselves, and charged across the bridge to face the massive Centurion.

The battle raged on, the stream of automatons seemingly endless. Kiara was lucky: after she had struck down the spheres coming towards her, the gates that held reinforcements, long since flooded, failed to open. She turned to help her comrades and, seeing Neloth blazing a trail through spiders with relative ease, turned to battle the Centurion.

This battle was going substantially more poorly: this Centurion was clearly built for combat, and stood at least 15 feet tall. Teldryn and Frea skirted around its monstrous feet, slashing and hacking at its legs, but it seemed relatively unphased, swinging this way and that with its axe-like hands, each easily the length of an arm. Kiara's eyes blazed blue as she stepped onto the bridge, and with a yell, she unleashed twin streams of crackling lightning into the machine's chest.

The animunculus staggered backwards a step from the force of the spell, bright blue sparks skittering along its body. Frea took advantage of this and bolted forward, slamming her ebony axe into its hip joint in a perfect strike. The axe sunk deep into the join where the machine's leg met its body and stuck there, sending a jet of steam blasting out in a hiss of protest. Frea abandoned the weapon after a second of trying to pull it back and darted backwards again, barely missing a brutal strike from the Centurion.

Kiara's magic ran out and her lightning sputtered to a halt as she fell to her knees, panting. The Centurion's plating was steaming, and its chest where it had been struck was glowing red hot and covered in an ashy char. Despite its appearance, however, the automaton seemed to be functioning quite well: it stepped forward once again, and faster than one would think possible, reared back and swung in a wide arc at Teldryn.

The Dunmer barely managed to raise his sword to block in time, and the force of the blow was so great it shattered the blade, sending fragments of the ebony blade flying through the air like shards of midnight. Almost as quickly, the Centurion swung its arm back, smashing the elf with the flat of its axe head and sending him flying with a tremendous splash into the dirty water. His armor dragged him down and the last thing his partners could see before he sunk into the depths was the flash of an Alteration spell.

Kiara hurled another lightning bolt at the Centurion, but it sizzled uselessly against its bronze face, and she scrabbled with her bag for another magicka potion, but there were none to be found. Frea turned to try and help her and the Altmer barely managed to choke out a warning as the Centurion swung again.

Frea caught the blow with her Stalhrim ax, deflecting it up and away from her. It saved her skin, but her weapon caught and was torn from her hands, landing behind the machine with a clatter. The Centurion reared back and unleashed a blast of blinding steam, sending Frea stumbling back, where she tripped and fell hard onto the grate of the bridge.

"Frea!" Kiara yelled, her search for a potion now even more desperate. The Centurion stomped towards her prone form, slowed but not stopped by the busted hip joint. One, then two thundering steps, raising its arms for a deadly strike the whole time. Kiara was shaking, her magicka drained and with no ready means to help. Frea was struggling to get up and time seemed to slow to a crawl.

The Altmer racked her brains for options, and only one came to mind: the single most risky, stupid idea she had had yet. She raised her right hand, a glowing red orb ignited within, and she cast the spell.

Almost immediately, she cried out in pain: the red light flared and sent glimmering tendrils of magic into her own body. It was some of the worst pain she had ever felt in her life, as if her lifeblood itself was being physically ripped from her--which, in a way, it was. As the spell fed on her own lifeforce to power her magic, she raised her other hand and threw a final lightning bolt at the monster.

This distracted the automaton but ultimately just splashed off its helmet, and Kiara almost sobbed. She could feel her strength fading as the spell ate away at her, and she felt dizzy, seconds away from losing consciousness. Just as the Centurion finally reared back, preparing to deliver its death blow, a sudden flurry of fireballs slammed into it, exploding violently. Kiara let her hands drop and looked over in awe: Neloth stood stoically on the edge of the bridge, his eyes alight with an inferno as he sent a barrage of flame directly into the automaton.

When the salvo was finished, the Centurion was lifeless: its entire top half was slowly melting into bronze slag, its twin axes thudding into the floor as it slowly keeled over. Frea rolled over and got up on her knees, quickly crawling over towards the Altmer as Neloth inspected the wreckage. Off to the left, there was a splash as Teldryn broke the surface of the water, the remains of his waterbreathing spell fading as he dragged himself up the flooded stairs.

"Kiara, what in Oblivion was that?" Frea asked, a combination of fear and relief in her eyes.

"Yes, what indeed. That was the singlehanded most risky, excessive, and poorly thought out spell I've ever seen. You must teach it to me when we return." Neloth chimed in, walking over towards them. 

"It was, uh, Equilibrium." Kiara muttered, somewhat ashamed. "I found the spell tome in...in Labyrinthian."

"Please never,  _ ever _ do that again." Frea whispered. She had heard the cries of agony while the spell had done its work, and they were hauntingly familiar to what she had heard the elf make in her sleep on too many occasions. 

"Yeah, trust me when I say I don't wanna." Kiara replied, wincing as she stood up. Teldryn trudged over to them and flipped open his visor, water spilling from his helmet and revealing his clearly unamused face.

"I swear by Lorkhan's still beating Heart if I have to spend another minute near this water, I'm going to hunt down the Dwemer and  _ really _ make them extinct." He growled, bringing at least a little levity back to his comrades, who giggled.

"The reading room should be powered." Neloth stated simply as he checked the 4 boilers. "I will let you all recover while I check to see if it functions correctly. I will see you there."

The trio nodded as he walked off, and spent the next few minutes gazing in awe at the small scrap heaps that remained of the dwarven machinery,

"Well." Kiara finally broke the silence. "It's now or never. Yeah? Let's go see what Hermaeus Mora has for us." she pulled herself to her feet, and, with the support from her comrades, staggered over to the elevator to face down the Daedra once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you are folks, a nice long chapter for ya this time (well, at least by my standards). My thesis is going well, and hopefully I'll be able to keep updating at least semi regularly. I hope you enjoy!


	10. A Walk in the Garden of Men

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our favorite trio enter Apocrypha once more in search of the power they need to stop Miraak.

The elevator ride back to the reading room seemed longer than the ride down, though whether that was the ancient machinery's struggle against gravity or simple anxiety, Frea couldn't be sure. Kiara had sat back down very quickly after boarding the monolithic stone platform, and gently alternated between sipping a health and a stamina potion. Teldryn quietly lamented the few shards of his shattered ebony sword he had managed to collect, and Frea awkwardly laid her hand on his shoulder for a second in what she hoped was a comforting gesture. The Dunmer sniffled (perhaps exaggeratedly), and gently shook the shards into a pocket in his bag. 

The lift jolted just as Kiara tried to haul herself to her feet, and she fell back down cursing. Frea offered her a hand that she gladly took, pulling herself up and testing her legs.

"I'm as ready as I'm going to be." She muttered, though she certainly didn't  _ feel _ ready. Her legs could barely support her own weight, and while she knew her magicka reserves were adequate, the power felt like a dull throb in the back of her mind instead of its normally crackling might. Frea nodded in agreement, ready for anything, but Teldryn just looked sullen.

"I'll need a weapon, sera." He muttered, checking the strap on his armor. "I'm good, but I'm not  _ that _ good."

"Here Teldryn." Frea replied, holding out her ebony war ax. "It's not your sword, but hopefully it will do for now."

"You Skaal are always too generous for your own good." He growled, but he took the weapon gratefully, hefting it in his hand once or twice to attune himself to its weight. "This will work. And…" He grimaced a little, clearly unused to such generosity. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Frea beamed, as if to mock his pessimism. Kiara felt her stomach flip a little at the sight of her smile, but pushed it to the back of her mind: she was nervous, that was all.

The elevator finally ground to a halt and the gate creaked open once more. Kiara gulped one last time before steeling herself and walking up the incline back to the reading room.

"Our fix did the trick." Neloth could be heard calling from the room, having clearly noticed their arrival. "The Book is ours to take." He gestured grandly at the newly-risen pedestal as they entered the room, a toothy grin adorning his face.

Kiara felt the familiar pit of dread in her gut as she looked at the unearthly tome, but could feel both of her friends beside her and managed to stand tall. "Thank you, Neloth. Sincerely." She meant it: the elf may have been an ass, but he had saved their lives down below, and given them the answer they sought. The Telvanni nodded as if this was an obvious outcome.

"Of course." He replied proudly, hands on his hips. "Any chance to take a crack at a Dwemer puzzle. And, now there is another Black Book to catalog. I...shall let you three take the first crack at it."

Teldryn rolled his eyes while Kiara simply nodded grimly. The trio linked arms as they stepped up to the platform, gazing down at the book.

"Send old Mora my regards." Neloth chimed in as they flipped open the book and felt the familiar dreadful pull as its magics ensnared them. "Oh, and try not to go mad!" he added as the tentacles appeared once again and quickly reeled their prey into the depths of Apocrypha.

There was no falling this time, only a sudden, inky blackness that seemed to engulf them where they stood. Still frozen, they could do little to stop the wandering tentacles creeping over them, until with a sudden flash the darkness snapped away and they were free again, standing in a long hallway plastered with thousands and thousands of rustling pages.

Kiara swallowed hard, a rush of nausea pushing into her throat, the smell of poison and musty pages dragging back memories she didn't wish to relive. She swayed slightly on her feet and felt both of her comrades tighten their grip on her arms.

"So this is where ol' Tentacle Face lives." Teldryn commented dryly, looking around. "Nice place." While he put on a brave face, Kiara had been with him long enough to recognize the warble in his voice--even the normally stony Dunmer was unnerved by this godless place.

A single hallway stretched out before them, and to everyone's chagrin, seemed to be  _ moving _ further up ahead, undulating back and forth like a snake. Just looking at it brought the nausea rushing back with a vengeance. Kiara looked away quickly and took in the rest of her surroundings. There were few other places to go, however, and with a groan, she turned back to the hall before her. 

"I can see why you two have nightmares." Teldryn cracked humorlessly. "I'm getting vertigo just looking at that."

"I'm going to kick Miraak's  _ ass _ ." Kiara groaned, watching the hallway drift back and forth. At the very middle of its arc, a platform could be seen on the far end, and the intention of this nauseating puzzle became clear. "Alright, I know what we have to do. Follow me!"

The Altmer unlinked her arms with her comrades and readied herself, timing the sway of the corridor before taking off running, trampling the half-rotten paper that plastered every surface in this realm underfoot as she sprinted down the length of the hall. She reached the edge just as the swinging hallway reached the platform and made a desperate leap, landing hard, but safe, on the stationary platform on the other side.

She rolled over and gave her companions a thumbs up, just in time to see them easily and painlessly step off the end of hallway onto the platform--a far cry from the perilous flying jump she had tried to make.

"That was very impressive." Frea tried to comfort her as Teldryn just cackled. The Skaal reached down and helped Kiara back up, who grumbled a thanks out of embarrassment. The group continued down the platform until they reached what appeared to be another, large copy of the Black Book laying on a pedestal. After considering their options, Kiara tentatively stepped forward and flipped it open, and with a rush of foul wind, the group suddenly found themselves in a different hallway, though their surroundings looked much the same. The primary difference was the hallway seemed to end abruptly in a wall, trapping them in a small walled-in box.

"Well, that's...different." Kiara muttered after taking a look around. "I guess this place is more complicated than it seems."

"What a shock." Teldryn drawled. "The endless maze of Apocrypha, complicated." Kiara gave him a stiff side eye before walking over towards a strange, curled construct that looked like a twisted metal flower some feet away. She reached out towards the coiled stem and ran her finger along it, yanking her hand away as the construct suddenly curled up, closing into a shape reminiscent of flower before bloom. 

Before anyone else could question what in Oblivion had just happened, or what it would do, a low rumble filled the small room and the far wall  _ unfolded _ , opening up and expanding into a much longer hallway, and finally opening at the end into what looked like a larger open room. 

"Well." Frea muttered as they watched this entirely new  _ building _ unfold from nothingness in front of them. "That's unsettling. Let's find the end of this damned book quickly."

Kiara had to agree, and Teldryn was nodding along with them. The longer they spent in this realm, the greater the chance of succumbing to madness, or worse. The trio quickly set off down the hallway, jumping every few seconds as the strange drafty wind that filled the realm and rustled the thousands of pages papering the walls. Nothing approached them as they wandered cautiously down the hallway, until they stepped into the large room at the end of the corridor.

Kiara heard Teldryn suck in a breath and turned to ask him what was wrong, but was immediately pulled back into the hallway, along with Frea, by a very concerned mercenary. 

"What, in the name of Sheog's raving Isles, are  _ those _ things?" The Dunmer stage whispered, pointing frantically into the larger room, where two of the twisted, tentacled masses that Kiara and Frea were unfortunately familiar floated, each holding a book that looked older than any of them.

"Oh. Neloth's book called them 'Seekers.'" Kiara muttered, peaking around the corner and shuddering at the sight. "Apparently they're...well, people. Lost to Hermaeus Mora's madness seeking knowledge."

"Whatever they are, I hate them." Teldryn grumbled, discomfort clear in his voice. "Let's get this over with and get out of here."

Kiara nodded in agreement, her keen memories of the  _ last _ time she encountered these daedric horrors clear in her mind. She ignited two handfuls of lightning in her fists and, with her comrades at her back, stepped back into the room and hurled a salvo of spells at the two daedra. Caught off guard, the two creatures panicked and summoned copies of themselves, but these were struck down in moments by the Altmer's comrades charging into the fray. In a moment it was over, ash and rags drifting down to the floor as all that remained of the poor souls.

"Terrible. I hope the same fate does not befall us." Frea shuddered, kicking at the remains. As Kiara looked around the rest of the room, trying to find another exit, Frea snatched up one of the books that the Seekers had been reading and flipped it open, immediately recoiling upon reading the title (N'Gasta! Kvata! Kvakis!). "What sort of books does Herma Mora keep in this dreadful library?"

"Not the light reading kind, I imagine." Teldryn replied, looking around. He was still on edge, both from their last encounter and the general atmosphere of Apocrypha itself. "I suggest we leave the books alone, lest we become….one of those."

Kiara trembled and swallowed a mouthful of bile. Gods forbid that happen to her, or worse, her friends. 

"Let's keep going." She muttered turning back to her comrades, who dropped the books and came up to join her. As they walked past one of the pits of reeking acid that dotted this strange realm, Teldryn noticed something wrong, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. He opened his mouth to warn his comrades but was cut off by a horrendous roar.

The group spun around to face another massive Lurker clawing its way out of the bubbling poison. It roared again and swung at the first person it saw, which happened to be a very unfortunate Teldryn Sero. He dove out of the way of the blow, feet slipping slightly on the acid dripping from its immense, fishy body. By the time this happened, Kiara had snapped free of her confusion and hurled a fireball into the beast, which sizzled and stank as it slammed into it, ripping another roar of agony from its throat.

It swung blindly in its painful rage, again at the mercenary. It was a sloppy blow he would normally easily parry, but the ax he was wielding was a fraction too heavy, and his arm a fraction too slow.  _ Not again _ were his last thoughts as he was flung across the open space and landed heavily in the lake of acid that stretched beneath all of Apocrypha. As he sunk below the green waves, his last thoughts were the cries of his friend and a slight buzz against his skin before everything went black.

Frea and Kiara almost ran in after Teldryn, but couldn't--the vile sea sizzled and smoked as the elf disappeared beneath it, and they only had a few seconds the scream out for him before the rumbling steps of the Lurker dragged them back.

"You bastard!" Kiara growled, conjuring a miniature ball of fire between both her hands, which grow in heat and brightness until it looked like a small sun. With a yell, she hurled it into the Lurker's chest, and the beast simply exploded, raining down steaming fishy guts and drops of black blood. Frea wiped what she could from her armor and then attended to Kiara.

The elf was panting from exertion and rage, the magic light in her eyes fading as Frea walked up to her. Her face was smeared with soot from the explosion and traces of the creature's remains slowly dripped down her cheeks.

"Teldryn's probably fine." Frea assured her, pulling a rag from her satchel and gently reaching up to wipe her friend's face. "We survived dying here before, remember? He's probably grumbling at Neloth about how that was a cheap shot."

Kiara had to laugh at that one, the corners of her eyes crinkling in genuine happiness despite their surroundings. Frea cracked a smile as she turned the elf's face and wiped her other cheek, hands lingering longer than they strictly had to.

"Probably just mad he drowned twice in an hour." Kiara chuckled, reaching over to wipe a spot on Frea's own face with her thumb. The Nord hummed in agreement and they stood there, still, for just a second, their dreadful surroundings forgotten. Their hands both lingered, not wanting to be the first to pull away.

Kiara broke first, gently stepping away and clearing her throat.

"Ahem, well, uh. Better….better keep moving, yeah?" She muttered, very quickly turning and wandering down the hallway. Frea stayed and smiled after her for a moment before following, readying herself for the mission once more. They slowly explored the twisting hallways, and while they didn't encounter any more creatures, they passed through yet another book and several more of the flower-like scryes, until they reached what  _ seemed _ to be the end-- a massive, several level staircase, flanked by towers and more pools of acid, and ending in a well-lit platform that  _ had _ to be important. As they approached, however, not one but two Lurkers, both larger than the last, crawled free and howled in unison.

"Azura's ass!" Kiara swore, fireballs lighting up her hands again. "Hit the left one!" Frea obeyed, charging the creature and once more entering the careful dance around its monstrous feet, slashing at it when she could but mostly just trying to stay alive. Kiara pummeled the other, but could only distract Frea's target occasionally, when she had successfully gotten out of the way.

With a ferocious stomp, Kiara's Lurker summoned a field of writhing, poison-dripping tentacles, which grasped at the elf's feet and tripped her up. She swore as she was forced to focus on her feet, blasting them with flames as the Lurker approached her.

Frea dodged another swing from her own target and heard Kiara's struggle. She made a quick decision and ran over to help, hacking at the other beast's ankle to slow it up just as Kiara pulled her legs free.

"Go! Get what you need and go!" Frea cried, dodging a swipe from the enraged Lurker and hopping over the trail of tentacles sprouting from the floor. The other Lurker was now approaching, and within seconds they would be overwhelmed again. Kiara froze: she couldn't go,  _ wouldn't _ abandon her.

"I'll be fine! Just  _ go _ , while they're distracted!" Frea growled, and Kiara made her choice. She  _ had _ to get to the end of this book, and with luck, it was just ahead.

"I'm sorry." She muttered, turning and sprinting up the stairs as the second Lurker got within range and swung at the Nord as well. She reached the top of the platform and could hear the battle below, the occasional fleshy blows and the slice of steel through skin, but after a moment, it fell eerily silent. Kiara forced herself not to think of it--she was fine, Teldryn was fine, Frea was fine, they'd all have a good laugh about this when she finally got out of here. She took a deep breath and approached the pedestal at the end of the platform, where a giant version of the Black Book lay.

Before she could open it, however, a mass of eyes and tentacles ripped through the air in front of her and  _ spoke _ , its voice heavy and warbling as it addressed her.

"Ahh, Dragonborn." it rumbled, its eyes all flicking to her. "All seekers of knowledge eventually come to my realm. I knew you would arrive."

"So you're the monster that runs this place." Kiara spat. She knew enough of the daedra to realize this was the dreaded Hermaeus Mora himself, finally face-to-face. "Don't tempt me with your secrets, just tell me how to stop Miraak."

"You  _ will _ serve me, willing or not." It answered, its voice rising against her defiance. "All who seek secrets are my servants."

"What do you want!?" She screamed, the sleepless nights and hidden terrors filling her voice with rage, but deep down she still trembled.

"Knowledge for knowledge. A fair trade, yes? The Skaal have withheld their secrets from me for centuries. Your pretty little friend numbers among them: perhaps you can obtain their knowledge for me."

"Why would I betray the Skaal's trust?" She asked, glowering at the expressionless mass.

"You will because you must. Give me their secrets and I shall give you Miraak's. Here: a gift, a display of my benevolence. The second word to your Shout. Use it to bend mortals to your will, as Miraak has." There was a rush of wind and magic, not unlike that which came from a dragon's soul, and the word appeared within her mind as if by magic. "Find the Skaal shaman, and deliver his knowledge to me. Only then can you hope to save Solstheim." 

Kiara had  _ many _ words she wanted to give this ungodly presence, most of them curses, but the mass disappeared into thin air as quickly as it had come. She growled into the air and slammed the cover of the book before her open, feeling another rush of foul wind as her vision went black, sucking her back to Solstheim once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! I'm right on the cusp of spring break, so here's a nice lil update to celebrate! Hopefully I can get a follow-up to this out during this next week when I'm on break, as I already have a lot of it written, but we'll see. Also, I did tell u there was gonna be romance. I did not lie. Face-holding in an awful Daedric realm may not be advisable, but I'm sure as hell gonna write it :3


	11. Secrets and Silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kiara faces an impossible choice, and her companions have taken notice.

It was clear in her journey back from Oblivion that Hermaeus Mora wasn't very pleased with Kiara. The world swirled nauseatingly around her as the magic took hold and she snapped back into the reading room with a lurch reminiscent of a beaching ship (she was unfortunately familiar). The sudden light was wildly disorienting and she fell to her knees, struggling with her churning stomach.

It was a fight she lost, and she retched on the floor as the world slowly came back into focus. She could hear a dark chuckle from behind her and sighed, knowing she was going to have to slap Teldryn later.

"Got all of us, huh?" the Dunmer asked from out of her line of sight. As Kiara slowly staggered back to her feet, she could see it was true: Teldryn was leaning against the wall looking a little queasy, and Frea was sitting next to him with her head hanging between her legs. Neloth was well off across the room to escape the smell, but looked mildly amused. 

"I take it Mora was not particularly pleased with any of you," the Telvanni observed. "But you don't  _ appear _ to be insane. Did you at least find what you required?"

"Yes and no," Kiara grunted, giving up on standing and just slumping against the wall next to Frea. "Mora wants a... _ favor _ ." 

"I suspected he might. I judge by your tone that this ' _ favor' _ is undesirable to you, so I won't ask. If you're done with the Book, I would like to take a look at it myself."

"Do whatever you want with the damn thing," Kiara sighed, shaking her head woozily. "If I have to see that bastard again, it'll be too soon." Neloth swept off towards the pedestal the second he got verbal confirmation, and immediately started muttering spells and theories under his breath, the sound of flowing magic serving as a comforting background for the group to recover.

"I'm glad you guys are okay," Kiara muttered, glancing over at her two companions. "Well...relatively speaking."

"Dying in there wasn't pleasant," Teldryn hissed, clearly upset at his own failing. "I…I can see why you two have nightmares."

"So you actually spoke to Herma Mora?" Frea asked as she slowly steadied herself. "And you're sure you're still sane?"

"Mostly, yes," Kiara chuckled dryly. "And he really spoke to me, not the other way around. I may have called him some choice names."

"I imagine he didn't take a liking to that," Teldryn growled, shaking his head and standing up fully, his nausea having clearly passed, or at least so he wanted it to seem. "Thanks for that one boss." He cracked a smile, the first since any of them had returned.

Almost immediately the gloomy atmosphere lightened considerably, and even Frea had to chuckle as the Dunmer feigned grumpiness. Slowly, the trio helped each other up, and after a few swigs from yet another mysterious potion Teldryn offered, had recovered fairly well. Kiara was the last to pull herself up, and needed a little support, but after another few minutes, could stand alone and seemed to have gotten over her nausea. 

The trio left Neloth to his devices, the old wizard muttering spells under his breath as he carefully examined a spot on the Black Book's binding. They collected their gear, loaded everything up once again, and slowly made their way over to the main door.

"You need any help Neloth?" Kiara asked as they stood before the massive bronze gate. She wasn't keen on staying with the old mage, but felt like she at least had to offer.

"What? Oh, no. Nothing any of you could provide. I'm perfectly capable of handling this myself," The Telvanni brushed them off, seemingly distracted. "And...I suppose common courtesy dictates I say thank you again."

Teldryn rolled his eyes and shook his head as if to say 'I told you so,' and Kiara nodded before turning back to the door.

"Alright," She pondered aloud. "I... _ we _ need to go talk to Storn."

"About whatever you found in that Book?" Frea asked. The elf was being somewhat evasive about what she had talked to Mora about, she had noticed, and had reason to be concerned.

"...Yeah" Kiara muttered after a substantial moment of hesitation, which only served to solidify her partner's anxieties. "Yeah, he's the best one to...help sort it out."

"I may lack his experience but I am just as much a shaman as my father," Frea pointed out. "Perhaps I could help you?"

It was  _ very _ clear at this point that the Altmer was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with this conversation, and even Teldryn had a look of concern, well hidden but still present on his face.

"I…" she paused for a long moment, and almost seemed to shrink a little as she wrestled with her thoughts. "I think Storn is...the best person to talk to about this." She finally admitted lamely, chewing on her bottom lip. 

"Of course." Frea replied. She tried not to feel too hurt, but her words came out cold, and the mage seemed to deflate, the gloomy atmosphere returning to settle over them once again. Teldryn broke the newfound silence.

"Well, we won't get  _ anything _ done standing here. Let's head back to the village." He received two stiff nods for his efforts and groaned inwardly. It was going to be a long, awkward walk.

And a long awkward walk it was. Teldryn led the group north, up along the coastline, and despite his efforts at jovial banter, all conversation fell flat. As the sun fell and the sky was painted with the colors of dusk, the group was still walking in sullen silence as the reached the tip of the small peninsula south of the Thrisk refugees' camp. Teldryn brought the group to a halt and turned to face his companions.

"Alright you two. We need to stop to camp. We're going to set up the tent, I'm going to go take the watch, and you two are going to have a lengthy conversation to resolve…. _ whatever _ this is."

Kiara blinked quickly, clearly a little surprised, and heard Frea bristle next to her.

"There is nothing—"

"There  _ clearly _ is. Don't bullshit me," Teldryn growled, staring them both down. "You're going to sit in this tent," he threw down the large bundle. "You're going to have a nice long talk while I hunt down some food. And you better be on speaking terms again when I get back."

With that, he stalked off, and left the two very frazzled women behind him. They stood in shocked silence for a minute before Kiara grabbed the tent and sighed.

"I owe you an apology. And an explanation." she admitted, unfurling the bundle. Frea grabbed the other side and nodded.

"I...would appreciate it," the Nord answered softly. "You've been through a lot and...I'm worried about you." she explained. The pair quickly finished setting up the tent and, with a little magic, got a fire going before sitting down and watching the sun sink below the horizon.

"You both know I talked to Mora already," Kiara started slowly, and Frea nodded, watching her partner's face carefully. "And he asked for a favor."

"A favor you clearly do not want to give him." Frea pointed out, remembering her unease.

"Not at all. It's...Frea, he wants  _ your _ secrets. The Skaal's I mean.  _ That's  _ why I need to talk to Storn. I...I don't know what secrets he means but…"

Frea's eyes widened. It was very clear to the Altmer that she indeed  _ did _ know what secrets were meant, and was quite unnerved.

"I take it you  _ do _ know."

"Yes…" the shaman whispered, face falling. "I do not...you were right to want to speak to my father. I...am not the right one to ask for that knowledge."

"I didn't want it to worry you," Kiara continued softly. "I know this is....a huge thing to ask of your people. I had hoped…" her face contorted, clearly uncomfortable once again. "I hoped you wouldn't need to find out, but that's foolish."

"It is much to ask." Frea admitted. "But Miraak is a great enemy. Storn...Storn will have an answer, I am sure. I am glad you have decided to trust me with this, Kiara."

"I'm glad too." the Altmer answered quietly. "It...was hard keeping it from you. You've earned my trust...even my respect."

"Not friendship?" Frea cracked a smile, the first in the last few hours, Kiara laughed, and it was as if a heavy weight had been lifted, shattered by that tinkling, happy sound.

"Yes, friendship too." Kiara hesitated before moving over closer, leaning her head against the Nord's shoulder. "You're very important to me you know?" She continued, gazing into the fire. "And uh, Teldryn too, of course." She added quickly, and Frea laughed.

"You've been a great friend to me," Frea answered her sentiments with her own and let an arm drape over the elf's shoulder. "And I worry about you because...because I care about you, quite a bit. I don't want to see you get hurt...more than usual, that is."

Kiara snorted and sat up looking over at the Skaal, who smiled knowingly at her. In a spurt of confidence, the mage leaned towards her and…

A ferocious roar shook the forest around them, a massive gout of flame blazed up above the treetops in the distance, and the pair snapped apart, hands reaching for weapons and igniting spells as the ground rumbled and the massive shape of a dragon took to the air. It swooped over the two and blasted the sand with its breath, melting it into steaming black glass. At the same time, Teldryn burst out of the woods and came running towards them, ax in hand.

"Did you see the—" his desperate panting was interrupted by another fierce roar and a crash as the dragon landed heavily on the beach, mere feet away from their camp.

'No,  _ what _ dragon?" Kiara yelled back, clearly perturbed at the interruption. Teldryn took a valuable second to shoot her a death glare before charging the beast, sinking his weapon into its left leg with a heavy two-handed strike. It growled in pain and kicked back, knocking into the Dunmer and sending him staggering back. Frea took advantage of the distraction and wedged her own ax into a gap in the scales on the dragon's neck, drawing both blood and a howl of rage from the creature as it thrashed about.

"Miraak desires your soul, Lirkiin!" the dragon rumbled, staring the Altmer down, eyes black with hate. "I intend to deliver it!"

"Tell him to get it himself." She growled, in response, launching twin bolts of lightning into the wyrm, who writhed and growled as the sparks danced over him. It spread its wings and took off with a blast of wind, circling overhead and weaving between the spells Kiara painted against the night sky.

He swooped, and she realized too late what his aim was. She tried to run, to move away from the gaping maw lunging towards her faster than she could believe, when she was suddenly struck from behind and sent sprawling into the sand. She rolled over just in time to see Teldryn, standing in her place, get scooped up and dragged skyward between the monster's massive teeth.

Her cry of distress caught in her throat as she watched the mercenary swing wildly, burying the spike on the back of his ax into the dragon's eye. Its cry of agony shook the trees and Teldryn was thrown down, landing heavily in the shallows of the nearby sea and weakly struggling with a healing spell before the breakwater washed over him.

Kiara made a snap decision and scrambled to her feet, charging into the surf towards where the elf had fallen. The dragon landed heavily, half blind and furious, before Frea, who stared it down.

"I have no quarrel with you, joor," it spat, crawling towards her, and towards the distracted elves in the ocean behind her. "Stand aside."

"No." her answer was simple and defiant, and she ran straight at the beast, grabbing the horn on the tip of its face and jumping up on top of its head, barely missing the gout of flame building in its mouth.

Kiara found Teldryn and dragged him by his pauldrons into shallower water, where he coughed and sputtered the water free of his lungs, breathing shallow.

"Think I broke a few things sera." He muttered, gesturing at his legs, which hung limp and useless in the deeper water. The Altmer ignored him and cast a powerful healing spell, sending tendrils of golden magicka through him and down beneath the waves, where it tingled against his legs and he kicked suddenly, feeling his spine realign.

Kiara looked up to check on Frea just in time to see the dragon rear back, flames spilling skyward from its throat with a determined shaman hanging onto its skull. She struck once, her ax digging into its one good eye and triggering another sharp roar that almost hurt the ears. She struck again, wrapping her arm around its jaw and burying the bloodied ax blade in its soft, unprotected mouth once, twice, and then three times before it fell silent. The mage stared in awe as she jumped off its head as it collapsed, lifeless, to the ground, silenced once and for all.

Frea took a few deep breaths before turning and running to help her friends, grabbing Teldryn's other arm and pulling him free of the water. The healing magic had left him woozy, and he mumbled half-coherently as they laid him before the fire.

"Vivec o'ly taught us t' breath water for one day, y'know." He muttered, splayed out on the sand. "Stupid Daedra. Don't...don't know why I keep gettin' drownded t'day. Drownded. Drowned. Tha's a weird...weird word."

"He seems...out of sorts." Frea muttered, looking concerned.

"He'll be alright. Healing serious injuries like that is...not an pleasant process for a body to go through." Kiara explained. Frea nodded—she had seen a similar case only once, and she wasn't sure if it had been the magic or the liquor given to numb the pain. "He...might be a bit out of it for a while."

"And he didn't even get food for us like he said." Frea grumbled, feigning a pout. Kiara laughed as she collapsed back in her spot by the fire, rubbing her temples as her magicka regenerated, a sensation that felt like a scratching in her brain.

"I'll get some stuff out. Dibs on not feeding him." The Altmer replied, snatching her pack and pulling out some dried rations. Frea sighed but took up the odious task of making a very puzzled Teldryn eat bits of jerky as Kiara dug out a health potion for him.

"It's like feeding a child," Frea groaned as Teldryn smacked away the philter, muttering something about how he didn't want even  _ more _ water. "How long is he going to be like this?"

"He was hit  _ pretty _ bad, it might be an hour or two," Kiara admitted. "He's got a  _ lot _ of magic in his system right now. Try and get him that sleep potion and see if he won't nap it off."

It took some effort, but Frea managed to get Teldryn to drink his sleeping potion, and he was soon snoring happily away on the sand. Kiara stifled a yawn, but the observant Nord noticed and scolded her.

"It's been a very long day. You need some sleep." she commanded lightly, and Kiara tried to protest but quickly decided sleep sounded pretty alright. "I'll take the first watch. We can make it back to the village tomorrow."

Kiara couldn't argue, and after a moment of dragging Teldryn into the tent, collapsed on her own bedroll and started nodding off almost immediately. She could have sworn she felt Frea lean down and kiss her cheek before dropping off to sleep, but in her tired haze, she couldn't quite tell. All she knew as she finally faded away was that she hoped Miraak would give her dreams a break tonight—she'd had enough to deal with today already.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! I did manage to get this out before break ended, thank the lord. This chapter may have been an excuse to throw Teldryn around but...I digress.
> 
> The Dragon stuff again! Lirkiin is my own personal compound creation: "Lir" means "worm," or "weakling," and kiin obviously means "born of" (Dovahkiin anyone?) so Lirkiin is sort of a taunt directed at the Dovahkiin- not born of dragons, but born of worms (as opposed to wyrms) and weakness  
> Joor means "mortal," and is generally an insult when used by a dragon.
> 
> My beta reader for this chapter was Extremely frustrated with how slow i'm burning this and i am ecstatic :3  
> Y'all can suffer as I have suffered :)
> 
> I hope y'all enjoy! I'll try to get another chapter up soon!


	12. Unearthed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in their purpose, our trio returns home, and unveils Kiara's questionable financial practices.

A new day dawned brightly for Kiara, who had replaced Frea as the watchman at some point in the middle of the night, when the twin moons were at their height. Her sleep had been troubled by dreams, but nothing worse than what she normally experienced, which she never thought she would thank the Divines for like she was now. As she watched, the door flaps on the tent stirred and a  _ very _ sore and groggy-looking Teldryn emerged, groaning as he shielded his eyes against the light.

"Good morning," she greeted, her voice light. She was tempted to crack a joke, but in truth, she was just glad to see the elf up and moving around after yesterday's near-fatal fall. "Feeling better?"

"I feel like I took a tumble down Red Mountain," the Dunmer grumbled, rubbing his lower back. "And not a fun little ash slide either."

"Next time, don't play the hero with a dragon." the Altmer scolded, earning a scowl for her efforts.

"Why, so  _ you _ can break your back in the surf? Something tells me your girlfriend wouldn't appreciate that."

"My 'girlfriend' doesn't pay your fee." Kiara snarked back, glowering at him. "And if you call her that again, I'll stop healing your ash-riddled ass when you get thrown into another lake."

This fight likely would have continued (if good-naturedly) for a while if the Nord in question hadn't chosen that moment to duck out of the tent, looking between the two elves.

"...good morning?" She asked hesitantly. Any tension there may have been broke and Teldryn gave one last huff before going to check out the skeletal dragon remains that had been left piled on the beach.

"Good morning." Kiara greeted in return, finally standing from her spot on a stump and stretching her legs. "Sleep well?"

"Well enough. Did Mora leave you alone last night?"

"I had dreams but...nothing out of the ordinary." The revelation dulled the elf's glimmering eyes for a moment but she clearly chose not to dwell. There was a moment of silence before Frea put her hand on her shoulder.

"I am sorry." The Nord answered softly, earning a small nod of thanks for her efforts. They stood there for a moment before Teldryn stumbled back over.

"Alright lovebirds, let's get packing. The village isn't gonna walk itself to us, now is it?"

"You're walking a thin line, Sero." Kiara growled, earning the smuggest expression she figured a Dunmer was capable of in return. 

"I'm  _ not _ hearing any denial this time." He replied, eyes glimmering over his fanged smile. Frea stifled a laugh and ducked into the tent as Kiara slugged an unsteady Teldryn in the stomach and sent him sprawling in the sand. 

The two spent the next few minutes quibbling as Frea broke camp herself. They hardly noticed until Kiara turned to fetch her things and realized the tent (and most everything else) was already packed away.

_ "Someone _ had to do it." came the Nord's retort, grinning as the two elves realized she had pulled one over on them. "Come on now, a wise man once told me the village wouldn't walk to us."

Kiara's glower twitched upwards into a toothy grin as she watched the shaman walk away and quickly followed her, Teldryn scrambling to his feet and grabbing his gear behind her. 

"It would seem we have a new contender for master of banter." the Dunmer admitted from the rear of the pack as they made a quick pace through the ashlands. "You've impressed me Skaal, and that's not easy."

Frea turned and made an awkward little bow to him in gratitude as they walked, and the trio quickly fell into their comfortable and familiar back-and-forth, slinging insults and snark as if nothing had ever happened. After a substantial hike up the cost, they finally arrived once more back at the home of the Skaal.

For the first time, Kiara was able to see what a day in the life of the Skaal looked like. Entering from the south, she was immediately assaulted with the clang and hiss of the forge. Waving away the blast of steam from the enchanted ice the Skaal called Stahlrim entering the coals, she saw Benor looking at her, first with concern, and then with a smile as recognition set in. This was a pattern repeated throughout the village: two hunters skinning a deer in the center of town gave her a polite nod, as did the chieftain, Fanari, as she walked past.

"Hmph." Teldryn grumbled, glancing around. "They've never been this happy to see  _ me _ ." 

"It's just my special charm, Sero," Kiara replied, quickly spotting Storn meditating a short distance from his house. "It's called 'not being a cryptic ass.'" You should try it sometime."

Teldryn huffed audibly from the back of the group but trailed off as Storn looked up.

"Ah, Dragonborn, you have returned!" The shaman greeted as he stood, his enthusiastic tone falling as he saw their dour faces. "I take it your news is...not as good as we hoped?"

"Mora will help me defeat Miraak," Kiara started, figuring she'd at least begin with the positives. "But he wants the secrets of the Skaal in return."

The man's face grew stony as he heard the Daedra's demand. "This is dire indeed. These secrets he speaks of are our burden to carry, our sacred knowledge gathered by generations of Skaal. Giving them to the Demon of Knowledge is a great loss."

"I know this is a lot to ask of you Storn." The Altmer replied, her voice low and her eyes downcast. "Maybe  _ too _ much. But I...I don't think I can beat Miraak without it." Her voice wavered, ever so slightly as she trailed off. The shaman nodded and pondered.

"Give me time. Free the rest of the All-Maker's Stones, if you can, and let me consult with our ancestors. Perhaps Frea can teach you what she knows of our secrets, that they may not be truly lost. When this is done, I will confront Herma Mora myself."

"Father...are you sure?"

"Our secrets are sacred dear daughter, but they have little value if we are not alive to keep them. It seems I may have to be the one who surrenders to Mora after all."

The trio stood awkwardly as Storn retreated back into his meditation before wandering back into the town square.

"Heavy stuff, huh sera?" Teldryn grumbled, his attempt at a joke falling flat, even to himself. "The world must be truly doomed if even the crazy mountain Nords are worried."

Kiara's indignant reply was suddenly cut off by a yell from beyond the village.

"Kiara? Kiara Gathwen?" An out-of-breath Nord jogged up towards them, looking a little frantic.

"That's me." The Altmer replied, cringing instinctively at the mention of her surname, despite being miles and miles removed from anyone who would recognize it. "What can I do for you?"

"I've been looking all over the place for you. Got a letter from one...Ralis Sedarys? Wanted you to get it as soon as possible, paid me twice my rate."

"Oh, Ralis! I've been waiting for this, thank you." Kiara took the bound letter and flicked another septim at the courier. "For your trouble."

"Isn't Ralis the crazy one digging that barrow near Raven Rock?" Teldryn asked, his previous joke forgotten. "Why in Oblivion are you getting letters from  _ him _ ?"

"I've been uhhhhhh...financing his project? I guess?" Kiara sounded a little ashamed of the fact.

"Your excessive wealth burning a hole in your pocket? Needed to waste a few  _ thousand _ septims, didn't you?" The Dunmer was razzing her, but she glowered in response and the color of her ears showed she was legitimately flustered.

"No! I just....look, it seemed like a good deal, and Ahzidal is  _ such _ an interesting figure in magical history, and I just...I have a lot of cash on hand, alright? Blame my parents."

"Whatever you say Ms. Gathwen." The Dunmer chortled, but quickly choked it back as he received a death glare from the Altmer.

"So what does it  _ say? _ " Frea asked, stashing this newfound knowledge about her friend for later use. "What does this Ralis need from you?"

"I suspect he ran into more draugr. This has happened a few times before." Kiara explained as she tore the bundle open and glanced at the letter. "'You're needed.' He's been getting a lot more to the point with these things. Well, we need to head towards Raven Rock anyway...wanna make a quick detour?"

"I could stand to watch your poor financial decisions blow up in your face." Teldryn pondered aloud. "Count me in."

"Me as well." Frea replied. "Perhaps we can both learn something about Ahzidal, if this is truly his resting place."

"Let's go check on Ralis then." Kiara perked up considerably at the prospect. "If nothing else, it'll get our mind off Miraak and, y'know, the whole impending doom thing."

Set in their task, the trio said their goodbyes and left the village behind them, making quick time across the snowy tundra and into the ashlands, snaking past the riekling-infested Thrisk hall and finally stopping to camp for the night at the shuttered remains of a trading post. The night passed uneventfully, and as the sun rose higher into the sky the next day, they finally approached the ash-swallowed remains of Kolbjorn Barrow.

"Wow, he's hired a lot of help this time." Kiara commented, seeing the rows of new tents lining the outside of the excavated entrance. "No wonder it set me back five-I mean two thousand septims." She glanced guiltily at Teldryn, who let a joke die on his lips as he glanced around the fast-approaching camps.

"Something's wrong here sera," He muttered, voice low and grim. "I see 10 tents and  _ no _ workers." He brought the party to a halt and crouched gingerly behind a rock some yards away. 

"That is weird...even Ralis is gone. Maybe they found something?" She sounded hopeful, trying to ease the tension.

"Seems optimistic." Frea replied, herself quite uneasy. "This place feels...wrong. We need to be careful." 

The trio approached, and if to confirm their fears, immediately noticed the blood splattered across the tent doors and smeared down the scaffolding towards the barrow entrance.

"Weeeell, that's not good." Kiara sighed. "We need to get down there, might still be survivors." Her partners nodded in agreement and they quickly entered the foreboding barrow entrance and descended into the dank tomb.

The first main room was already cleared: Kiara could even see the twisted remains of the Deathlord she had slain here pushed over into a corner. Teldryn poked gingerly at the corpse of a miner laid over the central altar.

"I've never seen draugr present bodies like this." The mercenary warned, all joviality gone from his voice. "Be careful."

They passed into the next chamber, the elaborate wooden scaffolding creaking under the weight. A draugr growled as it noticed them, but fell almost imeddiately, an icy spike blooming from its chest. The room remained silent as everyone froze, hearing the shambling footsteps of more of the undead beyond the next doorway. Nothing emerged, and they cautiously made their way down towards the word wall, standing tall and ominous at the far end of the chamber.

"Noble Nord, remember these words of the Hoar-Father," Kiara read, quickly pulling out a familiar journal to check her translation. "A warrior fights his inner evil, but a king unleashes it on his enemy. Cheerful." She scribbled down a few words as she felt the magic of the wall flow into her. "I've been waiting for them to dig that up. Been driving me crazy, I could hear it chanting since I first stepped in here."

Teldryn seemed unphased, but Frea looked at her curiously. "The walls...chant?"

"Yeah, it's a Dragonborn thing, I guess. They teach me Words of Power and such. Cool history lesson too." The Altmer tucked her book away once more and pondered the words for a few seconds. "I can only guess what this one does." 

"I'm sure you'll get the chance to find out." Teldryn pointed out grimly as a pair of draugr, Wights by the look of them, appeared in the doorway, growling curses in Dovahzul. Kiara rolled her shoulders and took a deep breath in.

"Ven...Gaar!"

A blast of wind blew past her companions and struck the two withered warriors, flinging them up and back into the wall. One snapped nearly in half with a dusty crack, and the other landed heavily on its back, where it was quickly dispatched by Frea with a well-placed blow to the head.

"Alright, I like this one." Kiara admitted as looked at the result. "Very nice."

A Scourge emerged from the doorway next, and the trio refocused. Under their combined martial prowess, it fell quickly, and the group advanced quickly and ruthlessly through the ruins until they reached what had formerly been the final chamber. A new path down had been excavated, and they tentatively continued down into the bowels of this new path.

Draugr fell easily under the might of Kiara's magic. She was ruthless with her use of powerful fire spells, which burnt the undead to a crisp. Any stragglers could quickly be taken out by the two warriors who followed her. She quickly uncovered the new path forward past a small trapped room, and picked up a set of ancient Nordic armor with a critical eye.

"If this is anything else like Ahzidal's other relics, this is far more interesting than it looks. I'll have to examine it later." Teldryn sighed as she tried to find a way to fit the bulky chest plate in her bag, and offered his own, larger pack, which she gleefully utilized.

They descended down the newly-opened staircase and could hear muffled yelling as they slowly made their way forward. As they approached the door into the next chamber, it fell eerily silent. Teldryn took the lead, throwing the door open, revealing Ralis Sedarys standing in the center of a large room, a twisted visage across his face.

He was standing ankle deep in a trough filled with blood, surrounding a raised stone circle, engraved with runes Kiara couldn't recognize at a glance. Slaughtered miners and guards littered the floor, and the lone Dunmer's eyes glowed with a frantic red light.

"At last! Ahzidal--awaken!" He screamed as he saw them, and the chamber suddenly rumbled. Kiara felt her stomach drop at the words, and with a fierce roar, Ralis was thrown into a wall and the twisted form of a familiar lich appeared before them.

Ahzidal cackled from behind his glimmering red mask as he ripped his way back into existence, his tattered Dragon Priest robes flapping in the drafty room. Kiara's companions snapped out of their shock after a second and immediately looked to the Altmer, whose face had drained of all its blood and taken on a deathly pallor.

"No…" she stammered, taking an involuntary step backwards against the gate that had slid shut behind them. "No no no no no!" Her hands lit with flames as the coffins on the walls cracked open, and a fresh wave of draugr filled the room. Frea and Teldryn struck at them as they approached, diving away from the Shout from a newly risen Deathlord.

As Teldryn smashed his way through small fry and Frea kneecapped a Wight with her axe, Kiara frantically wove the appropriate sigil in the air before her, panic driving her every move. She took two shaky steps towards the center of the room, towards the taunts of the vile lich, and conjured every ounce of magicka she had.

Teldryn noticed what she was doing and his blood ran cold. "Kiara,  _ no! _ " He cried, pulling his axe free from a draugr's newly-split skull. She showed no signs of stopping, and the Dunmer looked around desperately. As she raised his hands to cast her spell, he swore under his breath and abandoned the draugr, turning and tackling Frea to the floor, shielding her with his body as the Altmer's eyes blazed orange and she unleashed a maelstrom of flame.

The room exploded with fire, draugr being blasted away to ash in seconds. Kiara's firestorm, overcharged by her fear and magical skill, cooked the undead into crisp. Teldryn stifled a cry of pain as the flame washed over him like he'd taken a swim in a forge. Frea curled up beneath him, shielding her face from the super-heated air. Only the Dunmer's natural resistance to fire saved them from the same fate as the draugr, and when the flames finally cleared, Teldryn almost immediately collapsed to the ground and ripped a healing potion free of his pack.

Frea stood shakily, quickly finding the panicked elf alone in the center of the room, but before she got a chance to chastise her, the smoke across the room cleared. Ahzidal floated towards the group, laughing evilly behind his mask, seemingly untouched by the flames that had otherwise scoured the room of life. With a gesture, more coffins broke open and a new wave of undead surged forth. Kiara collapsed to her knees, and Frea could see the glimmer of tears running down her ash-smudged face as the Dragon Priest summoned a spell of his own in response.

"Frea!" The Nord snapped around, seeing the Dunmer mercenary stumbling to his feet, the back of his armor scorched clear through to the skin. "Catch!"

He hurled his borrowed ax back to its rightful owner, who caught it with a questioning look. The Dunmer seemed unphased, clenching his fists and straightening up to his whole height with a grimace. 

"Keep them off her. Get her back up, we  _ need _ her here." He growled, and Frea obeyed unquestioningly. She ran to the Altmer's side as Teldryn let out a cry.

"Hey, you undead n'wah!" He growled, hurling a an icy spear at Ahzidal, who deflected it easily but gave the Dunmer his attention. "Nerevar scorch your bones!" With another cry, his eyes blazed, and a cloak of flame draped itself over his shoulders, covering the Dunmer in a flickering orange shield. He charged through the ranks of draugr, the lesser ones simply collapsing from a brush of the scorching armor, and even the more powerful undead stumbling away from him in a panic. He hurled spell after spell at the floating priest, some deflected but some cutting through and impaling the monster.

"Kiara." Frea gasped as she reached the elf, both witnessing the spectacle before them. "Kiara you need to  _ get up _ . Teldryn can't do this without us."

"I can't." She choked, shaking her head. "I can't do it, he's too strong. His power is  _ legendary _ ."

Frea grimaced as Teldryn took a strong hit, Ahzidal's fireball slamming into him and sending him stumbling back. He was flagging quickly, and needed help  _ now _ .

"Kiara, look at me." She ordered, and the Altmer obeyed, blinking tears from her eyes. " _ You _ are just as legendary. You're the Last Dragonborn, and the greatest mage I've ever seen. This isn't Morokei: we are here, and we  _ will _ survive. But we  _ need _ your help." She reached down and gently wiped the tears and ash from her cheeks.

Kiara swallowed hard, trying to school her breathing back to normal. "What can I do?"

"Hit the lich with everything you have. I'll make sure you have a clear shot. You can do this." The elf nodded, and took the Nord's hand and shakily got to her feet.

"Ahzi-" Kiara coughed, clearing her throat and trying to keep her voice from breaking. "Ahzidal! Kren sosaal!" The lich blew Teldryn onto his back with a flick of his wrist and turned to face his new opponent, laughing darkly.

"Bolag aaz, Dovahkiin!" He growled, claws aglow with magic. Kiara grimaced and focused inward, conjuring up all she could from the depths of her magic reserves.

Frea watched Teldryn fall and cursed, hacking and slashing at the draugr intent on protecting their master. He seemed ok for now, the undead were focused on the mage behind her, but she needed to get to him soon. She heard Kiara's battle cry and, despite the situation, grinned: the priest wouldn't even know what had hit him.

With a strangled yell, Kiara thrust her hands forward and channeled all of her magicka into a crackling beam of raw electric power. It smashed through Ahzidal's ward, and the lich gargled in pain as the lightning danced over his desiccated skin. He shook for several seconds as his body was torn apart by the intense magic, his cries trailing off as his body began to disintegrate. Several more heartbeats passed as flesh and fabric peeled away from the shuddering creature, before he finally collapsed into an ashy pile on the floor. As if on queue, the remaining draugr fell in unison with him, the magic fueling them running out with their master's life.

Frea dropped her axes almost immediately, rushing over to Teldryn and pressing a potent health potion into his shaky hand. Kiara stumbled over to them and fell to her knees again on the floor.

"I'm sorry Teldryn." She murmured, ashamed. Her heart had finally stopped trying to rip its way free of her chest, and the ramifications of everything that had happened were setting in. "I'm so sorry, I couldn't stop…"

"Were it anyone else sera, I might just quit. But, well…" he paused to gulp down a swallow of the philter. "Well, you're still alright in my book. I can understand, if nothing else."

Frea and Kiara helped the elf to his feet, pulling his ruined chestplate free and throwing it down on the floor. He looked down at it and groaned as he pulled his helmet off as well.

"Damn...I liked that set. Fit nice around the stomach."

"Stop frequenting the cornerclub and you'll be fine." Kiara joked half-heartedly, earning a pained wheeze of a laugh from the Dunmer. "Now where the hell is…"

As if to answer, Ralis sat up from where he had landed in a thankfully-un-scorched corner of the chamber.

"What in Oblivion….oh by the Tribunal, what have I done?"

'Good question." Frea growled, looking at him suspiciously. "You just summoned a Dragon Priest. Damned powerful one too."

"I-I swear to you, I didn't mean to! That...that  _ thing _ . He's been in my head for months, telling me what to do, where to dig...all these workers…" The Dunmer, while suspicious, seemed genuinely terrifying by what had all transpired. "You have to believe me, I didn't want any of this!"

"I believe you Ralis." Kiara cut in. "I know what these monsters can do. Just...leave and try to forget what happened here. That's all I can offer you."

"Thank you sera." He replied, sighing in relief. "You can keep all the relics, anything you want. I...I just need to get out of Solstheim…" The shaken entrepreneur gathered his wits and left as quickly as he could. The trio could hear him break into a run as soon as he was out of sight.

"These Dragon Priests are monsters." Frea stated soberly, looking around. "I have only seen two, and this I can safely tell you."

"They are." Kiara growled. "And to think, one of them is still alive…"

The trio trailed into an uncomfortable silence before reaching the stairs. They made it back outside as quickly as possible, eager to escape the stifling ruin. Once they had exited back into the ashy Solstheim sky, they let Teldryn snag one of the bedrolls from a tent ("They aren't using them!") and strip out of the rest of his armor.

"Gross." Kiara teased as the Dunmer tossed away his singed greaves. "We'll have to get you some new armor...and weapons...and probably some smalls while we're at it."

"I hope you know this is all going into my fee." The Dunmer muttered, glowering at her. "My other employers were never this destructive to my property."

"I apologized!" Kiara whined, making Frea laugh. "I'll buy your damn armor, fine. We can head into Raven Rock tomorrow and hope Glover is willing to help."

Frea fetched two more bedrolls ("I have to admit, without the blood, these are nicer than ours…") and they made an improvised camp around the scattered remains of Ralis' campfire. It was still early afternoon, but after all that had happened, the group had no desire to go anywhere. They fell into an easy banter as Kiara compiled notes and looked over the relics she had collected. The Altmer was still shaken, but listening to her two friends snark at each other was surprisingly healing. Ahzidal may have nearly gotten the best of her, but she had beaten him, just as she had beaten Morokei. The liches still terrified her, but every one she struck down gave her hope for the fight against Miraak: she was still the Last Dragonborn, and a damn good mage to boot. She just hoped that that would be enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally! Thank you all for waiting the whole 2 months here for this chapter. Some life updates: I've got a bachelors degree now! Currently looking for employment, and very happy to be done with school (at least for now). With luck, I'll be able to update a little more frequently now!
> 
> The Dragon tongue used in this chapter is mostly ripped straight from the game. "Kren Sosaal" is "break and bleed," while "Bolag aaz" means "beg for mercy." 
> 
> As a final note, I'm hoping to get a little more into the Skaal's beliefs and lore more in this next new arc-sorta-thing. we don't get a ton of it in the game and that's always disappointed me. So look forward to that!


	13. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our trio finally have a relaxing day as they trek to Raven Rock, and explore Teldryn's past.

As the sun sank low beyond the scorched forests of Solstheim's ashlands, the group was already getting drowsy. The last few non-stop days (and near-death experiences) had exhausted them to the bone. Teldryn fell off to sleep very suddenly, having been gently slumping into his bedroll for the last half hour. Kiara couldn't blame him--the poor elf had been through quite a bit. She watched Frea drop off next, and it wasn't long before the Altmer embraced the alluring call of sleep as well.

Frea woke up to the bright moonlight and an undying need for water. Her throat was parched and still tasted like smoke and dust. She grumbled as she grabbed for her waterskin and found it empty, finally sighing as she resigned herself to fetching more. As she stumbled out of the tent, squinting into the moonlight, she noticed a familiar figure sitting at the camp's ruined fire, staring into the cold ash.

"Kiara?" She muttered sleepily, wandering towards the solitary Altmer. "What are you doing up? Dreams?"

"Yeah." The mage responded in a small voice. "Not the daedric crap, but...the normal ones are bad enough."

"I understand, but…" the shaman crouched down in the ash besides her friend. "You still need to sleep, you know. Especially after all that has happened."

"I know." came the muffled reply. "But...I don't think I can go back right now."

Frea nodded and sat down, leaning up against the downtrodden Altmer. "I understand. Do...do you want anything from me?"

Just…" Kiara took a shaky breath. "Just stay with me. Please."

"Of course. But come on, let's get back to bed. You should at least  _ try _ to sleep."

Kiara grumbled half-heartedly but allowed the Nord to grab her arm and pull her back into the tent, where she quickly slumped back into her bedroll. She rolled onto her side and let out a grumpy sigh, muttering curses at the peacefully-sleeping Teldryn.

Frea gave her a rueful smile as she sat down between them. "Just please try and sleep Kiara. You need it."

"Can…" the Altmer hesitated, shuffling uncomfortably on her bedroll. "Can you stay here with me? Maybe it'll help…" 

"Of course." she replied softly as she slid over and gently, very gently, eased the elf's curled up form into her arms. Kiara gasped softly but was quickly hushed as she was pulled against the Nord's chest.

"Shh." the shaman whispered as she laid down and ever-so-softly pressed her forehead against her friend's. "Just sleep. I'll protect you."

The Nord's arms were warm and safe, and although her ears burned, she squeezed her eyes shut and held onto that warmth for dear life. It was only a few minutes before she finally sank into a deep, mercifully dreamless sleep.

Daybreak came, though the birds that normally heralded its arrival were silent, having nested far from this cursed ruin. Teldryn awoke first, stretching and chuckling as he glanced over at his partners, still intertwined in their slumber. As he watched, his patron awoke and glared at him groggily.

"Say a  _ word _ and I'll blast you straight back to Windhelm." she muttered, drawing a sleepy chuckle from her sleeping partner. 

"Oh, I would  _ never _ , sera." Teldryn clutched his chest, his voice scandalized. Frea snorted again and finally opened her eyes, smiling gently at the perturbed Altmer before her.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked, choosing to ignore Kiara and Teldryn's spat. 

"For the first time in a long time." Kiara finally answered, after sticking her tongue out at the grinning mercenary. "...Thank you for that." 

"Of course." came the reply as Frea sat up, stretching. "I am glad I could help." She gave her friend a smile that made her stomach drop before getting up and setting about the day.

It didn't take long to break camp: they had borrowed most of the gear from the unfortunate miners, after all. Frea had volunteered to carry Teldryn's gear and, after a moment's hesitation, they had found some of Ralis's old clothing that would fit him well enough for the time being. 

Kiara packed her gear carefully, the two enchanted masks wrapped firmly in linen and buried at the bottom of her bag. The rest of Ahzidal's relics, while heavy and annoying to carry, didn't spark nearly as much fear as they did curiosity, and so they got piled on top of the masks, and the journals Kiara collected from Ralis's tent on top of that.

"Still don't get why you want  _ those _ ravings." Teldryn grumbled, plucking at the collar of a not-quite-big-enough shirt. "Interested in the psyche of those touched by Sheog now, are you?"

"These will be helpful in researching Ahzidal in the future." Kiara insisted, resisting the urge to sling one of said ravings at him. "And if not, think of how much gold we could make off 'em…" she continued slyly, to which the Dunmer perked up and nodded along as if he'd been onboard the whole time. Frea snorted and shouldered her now-much-heavier pack with a grunt.

"What exactly are you  _ carrying _ in here?" She asked, incredulous as she hefted one of Teldryn's satchels experimentally.

"Oh, you know. Some rocks, few extra armor bits, the unabridged "36 Lessons of Vivec," typical Dunmer things." He replied, at which Kiara finally lost her mental battle and pitched one of the rambling journals at the mercenary, who ducked under it with a cackle.

"You don't even  _ like _ Vivec." She shot at him pointedly as they began their slow but short trek to Raven Rock, whose buildings they could see just over the nearby Bulwark. 

"It's true." Teldryn grumbled. "I met him once, y'know, in Blacklight. Total asshole. Wouldn't even cure my Corprus, the high 'n mighty bastard."

"Wait." Kiara interjected, Teldryn's comment having nudged something loose in her memory. " _ Corprus? _ You were around for the Blight?! How old  _ are _ you?"

That brought Frea around too. She knew less of the history beyond her island home, but even this sounded familiar. "Wait, the Blight? So then, did you know…"

"The Nerevarine?" Teldryn grunted as if he was sick of the subject already. "Yes. Nervous little Saxhleel, always had his sticky hands somewhere they shouldn't'a been. Bastard still owes me 20 drakes, I think."

"The Skaal's stories speak of Hircine's Bloodmoon and the Nerevarine's role in his prophecies." Frea explained, noticing Kiara's curious expression at her sudden involvement. "But we always spoke as if he were a Nord…"

"And of course the Thalmor claim  _ they _ saved Morrowind to begin with." Kiara added with a scowl. "Three guesses what they say he was."

"All lies!" Teldryn piped in, clearly feeling a bit more chipper. "Little bugger was Argonian as they come. Trust me, most of Morrowind was surprised by it too when they found out. They... _ we _ admittedly didn't deserve the help from him."

"How old were you then?" Kiara asked, her curious nature now invested.

"It's rude to ask an elf his age, you know." He cackled, ducking under an attempt at a smack from his patron. "I was very fresh-faced then, I will admit." he continued. "Fewer scars, and tattoos. Watching the war with the Sixth House is what inspired me to my current vocation, honestly."

"Oh, so the great Nerevarine was a greedy bastard too, huh?" the Altmer grumbled, but there was a lightness in her voice that belied her joke. Teldryn scowled and laughed sarcastically as Frea rolled her eyes.

"We're here." the shaman announced, snapping the two elves out of their reverie. There was a note of anxiety in her voice--Raven Rock may have been a small city but it was positively massive compared to the Skaal's village, and it had been many years since her last visit. Kiara seemed to notice and stepped back towards her, letting Teldryn drift towards his ultimate objective, the cornerclub.

"You ok?" she murmured, watching the Nord's face carefully. "I bet Raven Rock is a bit much, huh?"

"It's...a lot." Frea admitted, looking away from the bustling square and back out beyond the gate to the ashy plains. "It's been a long time…" Kiara was silent for a minute, pondering. 

"Here." She finally answered, extending a hand. Frea was confused for a moment about her intentions but very quickly realized what she meant. "Maybe this will help?" she asked, clearly hesitant.

The Nord smiled, a sincere happiness that Kiara hadn't seen in too long. She took the offered hand and squeezed it: the Altmer's hand dwarfed her own and her skin almost tingled. The mage shot her a crooked but genuine smile and slowly but surely made her way over to the forge, where Teldryn was already talking to Glover Mallory.

"...no way you have even  _ close _ to enough to pay for that, Sero." Glover grumbled as they walked up. " _ Dragonscale? _ You don't have the gold, much less the materials for that."

"I don't, but she does." Teldryn gestured at Kiara, who gritted her teeth and started fishing out her coin purse. "And since  _ she _ destroyed my old set, she's paying!"

"Ah, hello again." Glover greeted, clearly familiar with her, and not even batting an eye at the Skaal. "I do hope you have the funds lass. Teldryn here is requesting some....substantial upgrades."

"Make him what he wants." Kiara sighed, finding and hefting a substantial purse of septims at the smith, who caught it and weighed it in his own hand. "That should be sufficient. I'll make sure you have the supplies you need later."

"Of course." Glover smiled, setting the coinpurse down to shake her hand. "Maybe I'll toss in something extra for the lady, huh?" He teased, laughing with the rest of her friends as she flushed. The transaction finished, Glover quickly went back to his forge and the trio drifted into Raven Rock's cornerclub.

"Ah, welcome back sera!" Geldis called as they entered, to Teldryn or Kiara, Frea couldn't tell. It was less busy inside--only a sultry looking orc and his apparent bodyguard who both ignored them. "Your room is still reserved, as per your request. Shall I get you all some sujamma?"

"Geldis, the usual." Teldryn cut in before Kiara could even speak. "On second thought, make it three. She's paying." He grinned, jamming his thumb back at his scowling patron.

"For what she's paying for the room, you can all drink for free." Geldis declared, ever the gracious host. "You all look tired, shall I serve you in your room?"

"Thank you Geldis." Kiara relaxed, glad to be saving her gold. "You've been very kind." The Dunmer nodded graciously and allowed the trio to retreat downstairs into the spacious, if sparsely furnished room Kiara called her home. The next door over was bolted, but was marked with a sign with a familiar name, a seeming advertisement for mercenary services. Teldryn grinned as they walked past.

"Like the sign? I made it myself. Probably older than you are at this point." Teldryn pondered aloud, looking at Frea.

"So just how long  _ have _ you been a mercenary?" Kiara asked as she sat on the bed, just now realizing she was still holding Frea's hand, pulling the Nord down with her. 

"Well, you all remember the Oblivion Crisis?" He asked, taking the only other seat available in the room. "Good money, fighting daedra. Tough work though. Got more than my share of scars from Dagon's bastards. Like this one." he gestured towards his neck. "Oh and this one. That too. You get the point."

"So, tell me." Frea cut in, obviously curious. "You elves obviously live...quite a bit longer than us." It was true, Kiara realized, finally thinking about it for the first time. "So just how old are you two?"

There was an awkward silence for a second before Kiara chuckled.

"I'll go first. I was born a little after the Red Year, which makes me...around 80? It...gets a little harder to keep track for us." She laughed. "I made my way into Skyrim during the Great War, about...20 years ago now?"

"She's quite the young buck, that's for sure." Teldryn rasped. "Not like me. I was quite young in the Nerevarine's time, like I said, but I think I'm up to 230 now. And before you ask, I can reasonably expect another good hundred years before I need to worry...assuming I live through this maniac's quest." He cackled, clearly rather comfortable with his own mortality: perhaps not surprising for a mercenary.

'See, now someone like Neloth is a special case." Kiara explained. "He's...well, there's no faulting his skill. The world'll be stuck with him for at least the next few centuries yet."

"Mages are always the exception, yes?" Frea chuckled, squeezing the Altmer's hand and sending her yet another reminder that she was still holding it. Teldryn let out a raucous laugh and grinned widely.

"Indeed they are! Annoyances, the lot of them."

"I don't know…" the shaman pondered, giggling. "I could get used to it, I think." The tips of Kiara's ears went pink and Frea swore she felt an additional crackling of static across the skin of her hand, at which she smiled.

"Well, I'm going to go get another nap in. Turns out near death experiences are exhausting. You kiddos have fun. Don't wake me up until Glover is done with my gear." Teldryn stood and stretched, heading towards the door of his own room.

"Sero, that could take  _ days _ ." Kiara muttered, and the merc grinned.

"Exactly. I need to catch up on a  _ lot _ of sleep, sera. Here, you should take this." He grabbed his bag off the floor and tossed the small bottle he had offered to his patron before. His voice switched and, for just a second, the pair thought they could see a softness in his eyes. "It...should help. You deserve the rest."

"Thank you Teldryn." came the quiet reply, and the merc nodded before disappearing into his room. 

"So." Kiara continued, turning to her partner. 'What shall we do with all our extra time?

" _ You _ ," Frea stated simply. "Need to relax for once. You've been through...so much."

"I'm not gonna argue with you." She mumbled, already leaning against her partner. "I heard something about the mine in town, maybe we can check that out tomorrow. Should be...low risk."

"That doesn't sound  _ relaxing _ but I won't fight you on this." The shaman conceded. "Take Teldryn's drink. I can stay here with you, if you'd like."

"Please do." came the mumbled reply, already slumping into the bed. "G'night Frea. Love you." The Nord almost commented on her choice of words, but turned to find her friend was already fast asleep. She smiled and prepared herself for bed as well.

"Good night Kiara." She muttered as she laid down beside her. "Love you too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Awwww, ain't they sweet? Heyo everyone, I'm back again with a new chapter! It's a little bit of a more boring one, I will admit, but I had a lot of fun writing it! Teldryn's past is, of course, entirely my own creation, but I rather enjoyed digging into the lore and finding a spot for him- I hope you guys like it too. I actually borrowed a friend's Nerevarine from their own Morrowind adventure, a little crime lizard named Lexus (enjoy ur cameo Beck <3).
> 
> Anyway, the next couple chapters are going to focus on these guy's fun in Raven Rock, such as it is. Hope you guys enjoy!


	14. The Final Descent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frea and Kiara take the day off to do some light spelunking

The sun was already high in the sky when Kiara finally awoke and stumbled out of bed, cursing herself out as she tripped over her own legs. A quick look told her Frea had already awoken and left the room. She didn't have to be disappointed for long, for as she kicked her bag over to look for  _ something _ to deal with the mess her hair had become, the shaman slid quietly back into the room, laden down with a tray and clearly trying to stay silent. She relaxed as soon as she saw the elf out of bed.

"Oh good, I was worried I'd wake you." she sighed, setting the tray down. It had a number of large drinks on top of it, and smelled  _ distinctly _ of what Kiara had come to recognize as fried ash hopper. "Geldis forced this on me, insisted it was on the house."

"Well isn't he friendly." Kiara grumbled, less upset and more groggy from her deep sleep. "How long was I out?" 

"Oh, it's only about noon…" Frea trailed off, prompting the elf to throw her a spurious look. "...on Morndas." she finished lamely, The mage blanched as she counted up the hours.

"So...I've been asleep for almost 2 days straight?"

"Yes. Teldryn too. Although I saw him when I went to get this, mixing health potions into his liquor, so...he seems like he's doing fine."

"That sounds...vile." Kiara grimaced at the thought. "Please tell me you didn't do that with  _ those _ ."

"No." Frea chuckled, picking up one of the drinks and handing it to her. "I don't feel like killing you, yet."

"But you're gonna let Teldryn do it to himself?" the mage laughed as she took the offered flin, grimacing at the smell but downing it anyway.

"He's a big boy, he can handle himself." Frea replied, grabbing her own drink, the only mead on the tray. "This food is for you as well. I ate earlier."

"Thank you." She murmured, engaged in the food already. She fell silent as she quickly made her way through the meal presented to her. Frea watched as she dug into the cooked bug and slowly sipped her mead, letting a comfortable silence fall over the room for a few moments.

"So." Kiara mumbled around her last mouthful, swallowing before she continued. "What's on the roster for today?" She sounded eager to get moving, clearly feeling restless from being cooped up for so long.

"I would urge you to rest but I know you will not listen." Frea said, rolling her eyes at the Altmer, who stuck her tongue out in response. "So instead, I shall humor you. Geldis mentioned some troubles the city has been having with the ebony mine, and of course there is the Standing Stone near the sea that remains corrupted."

"Oh, is that all?" Kiara asked dryly, though she seemed happy to have something to do. "Any word from Glover?"

"Not yet, although Teldryn gave him  _ quite _ the job. Likely, it will be another day."

Kiara groaned in protest for her coinpurse, and the Nord laughed as she finished her drink and set the bottle down on the tray. 

"Well, what first?" the Altmer asked, stretching. "I'll admit, I...don't relish dealing with another Stone right now. I talked to Crescius about the mines when I first arrived, should we look into that?"

"Whatever you would like." came the Nord's reply, and the pair quickly dressed, prepared their gear, and set off out into town. They passed Teldryn slumped at his table on the way out, and he waved at them, shooting them a groggy smirk before slouching back into his chair. Geldis gave them a cheery greeting as they passed and Kiara flipped him a septim, intent on paying for his generosity  _ somehow _ .

"Now, not to mock Crescius…" Kiara started as they stepped into Raven Rock's central square, hand slipping, by habit now, into the Nord's at her side. "But it's  _ possible _ this mine thing is...well, nothing. He's convinced there's something down there but he's…" she trailed off, glancing slightly desperately at her partner for help.

"Old?" Frea laughed.

"Well, for a human!" Kiara defended herself, sticking out her tongue at her friend. "Look, this conspiracy theory about the East Empire Company may be true, or it may all be in his head. We could be in for a boring day, is all."

"Well at least we'll have a boring day together then, yes?" Frea replied, and Kiara flushed, masking it with a coughing fit as they walked past Mogrul harassing one of the out-of-work miners.

"Yeah, it would seem we are, huh?" the Altmer answered, pulling open the door into Raven Rock's abandoned mine and grimacing at the musty draft that wafted out. "Eugh. This is gonna get messy."

It did indeed get messy: the mine had lain dormant for decades and had, in the meantime, filled with a variety of unpleasant creatures and grime. After a solid hour of wading through cobwebs, dust, and skeever dung, they had come no closer to finding the gate Crescius had told them about, much less the mine's supposed deadly secret.

"This is getting  _ very _ old." Kiara groaned, ducking under another support beam. The low ceiling of the mine was short enough that even Frea had trouble, and the much-taller Altmer had been uncomfortably stooped over for the better part of an hour now. "I'm never gonna get the spider guts out of these boots. Should we just go?"

"Let's give it a few more minutes." The shaman urged, giving her a sympathetic smile. "There's another passage we haven't checked, we should look there before we give up."

Kiara sighed but nodded, if only out of sympathy for the old Imperial who had sent them down here. They retreated back to the main chamber and ducked into the last small opening, sliding down the short wooden ramp into a mass of spiderwebs.

"Ugh." The mage grunted, summoning a floating orb of light in one hand and a small cloud of flame in the other, burning the webbing (and a number of smaller spiders) away from their path. "Keep an eye out for—"

She was interrupted by a furious chittering hiss from deeper in, and two fully grown frostbite spiders exploded from the darkness, poison dripping from their mandibles. They were immediately consumed in a gout of flame, which seemed to only enrage them further.

"Those?" Frea asked, slightly tense as she waited for the flames to die down. As one of the spiders stumbled out of the inferno in a daze, she quickly struck it down, where it clattered to the ground with a sickening crunch of chitin against stone. The second lunged forward, but a renewed blast of destruction magic stopped it in its path and it collapsed as well, its repulsive exoskeleton singed and ashy. 

"Yes, those." Kiara grumbled, dusting herself off. "Shoulda figured they'd be mad."

"Hey, we handled it." Frea assured her, wiping her axe clean. "Shall we continue?"

They pressed forward, awakening, and promptly defeating a number of additional frostbite spiders, until they reached a doorway, crudely sealed off with aging, rotten planks of wood.

"Well,  _ this _ is certainly something." Kiara pondered aloud, newly invested in their quest. "Clearly they didn't want anyone getting in here. Mind giving me a hand?"

Frea rolled her eyes and received another glare from her friend, but helped the elf pry the ancient beams free of the doorway, revealing a locked gate just beyond. Kiara slotted the key Crescius had given her into the lock and, with a bit of work to free the rusted mechanism, turned it relatively effortlessly. It swung open with an aged screech and as they stepped from the low halls of the mine into the larger space beyond, Kiara took in the remarkably familiar scenery.

"This is a Nordic ruin." She gasped in realization, summoning another orb of magelight in her hand and peering curiously at the wall. "Absolutely ancient too, these carvings went out of style in the Merethic Era…"

Frea looked around, slightly more concerned about the presence of any enemies than the carvings, but gave her friend space to continue her studying.

"How did this even  _ get _ down here?" She asked aloud, looking up and down the hall. 

"This must be the first settlement here at Raven Rock." Kiara theorized. "Everything that exists now has just been built on top of it, for...millennia."

"Well that certainly explains why they sealed it off." Frea replied. "These ruins can't be stable, not to mention the draugr that may be about…"

"Don't tell me you're chickening out  _ now _ ." The Altmer teased, smirking. She stood and pulled the magelight up over her shoulder, ready to continue.

"Of course not." Frea replied, hand on her chest in mock insult. "Not while  _ you're _ still here at least."

They both paused before breaking into giggles, shushing each other as they slowly set off into the ruins. They made it through the first set of rooms without much incident, able to easily dispatch any draugr they found before they became a problem, or awoke at all. Finally, they turned a corner and sloshed down a short flooded out hallway and stepped into a huge, high-ceilinged room, a huge waterfall crashing down into a man made river.

"Wow." was all Kiara could really say, gazing at the lush hanging vines and moss covering the bridge that stretched across this artificial canyon.

"That is...something." Frea agreed. They had both dropped their guard for the moment, but a sudden growl and the clatter of an arrow splintering against the stone near them quickly got their attention.

"Xarxes' backside!" Kiara muttered, seeing two Death Lords approaching them, one already nocking a second arrow in her glimmering ebony bow. The other roared curses in Dovahzul as it rushed down the stairs, desiccated hands clutching a massive warhammer. "Keep that one back." she ordered quickly, summoning twin handfuls of fire. Frea nodded and obeyed wordlessly, running forward to engage the warrior.

The two Nords, one dead, one alive, clashed in a blast of sparks. His hammer, an elven weapon with an eagle-shaped head, pitted and stained with age, reflected heavily off the shaman's ebony axe blade. She struck back quickly, her smaller, faster weapons lashing inside his guard and chewing at his mummified arms. He growled in a rage and pressed his next attack, forcing Frea back.

Kiara sidestepped the next volley from the archer, who glowered before inhaling and unleashing a Shout, a tremendous booming sound that filled the hall. The wave of force broke in the face of the mage's hasty ward, however, and she took the opportunity to charge a powerful concentrated flame with both hands. It flew at the draugr and detonated, hurling her crumpled form off the perch on the bridge and into the water, where it erupted in a fountain of steam.

The other draugr's next attack was slow and easy to dodge, an overhead strike that splashed uselessly into the shallow water. Frea took full advantage of the opening, kneecapping the warrior with her offhand and bringing the other around for a fatal blow to the neck. Her target fell as Kiara's rose once again, battered and scorched but still very much alive. It reared back to Shout again, but was interrupted as a powerful blast of lightning struck it directly between the eyes. There was a tremendous crack of thunder and the draugr collapsed, its distinctive horned helmet split down the middle and smoking lightly. 

"Well that wasn't too hard." Kiara joked, breathing in deep as her magicka stores were replenished. 

"Certainly not." Frea replied as she poked at the felled archer, pulling out the quiver of ebony arrows she had carried. "We  _ do _ make quite a team, after all."

"Indeed we do." Kiara replied, a tad bit proudly. "Well, this ruin is certainly  _ dangerous _ , but I don't see anything the Legion couldn't take care of. So what's down here that East Empire was so scared of?"

"I have a feeling we will soon find out." Frea answered grimly. They regrouped and made their way up and across the bridge, quickly finding themselves back in a twisting series of caves.

"Are we heading back into the mine?" Frea pondered aloud as they ducked past a particularly tight corner. Kiara didn't answer, and, in fact, came to a complete halt unexpectedly, prompting the Nord to run right into her back.

"Hey, what's wrong…" Frea trailed off as she saw the same thing Kiara had: the tunnel they were in opened up suddenly into a massive cavern, a natural cave with a small creek running through it, and closed at the end with an imposing, monolithic stone door. 

"Wow." The Nord muttered, taking it in. The path they were on ended very suddenly, and dropped severely into the cave below. It didn't seem there'd be any way back up once they dropped back down, at least not without help.

"I think you were right about finding trouble." Kiara muttered, looking down the cliff face before them. The pair managed to clamber down into the chamber, and made their way towards the door. As they approached, they noticed a large collection of bones and desiccated bodies littering the stairs leading up to the stone portal.

"Well." Kiara muttered, voice low. "I think we found what happened to Gratian."

"It would seem so." Frea replied, gingerly picking up an old journal laying beside one of the skeletons. "This is his. It mentions—"

"A sword?" Kiara cut in, hefting a large, ornate blade from the ground. It was clearly meant for two hands, and tapered in the shape of a long, thin triangle. It hummed lightly with magical power, a faint red glow illuminating the blade.

"Yes." She answered, flipping to the next page. "He mentions it here. It seems it's connected to that door, but he couldn't figure out how."

"Well, let's see if we can't figure it out." Kiara hefted the sword again, straining slightly against its weight, and swung it in a wild arc, its tip clanging into the stone floor with a resounding ringing crash. The blade glowed brighter as it swung through the air but, it seemed, couldn't quite work with the mage's terrible form.

"...Ok maybe  _ you _ should swing it." Kiara said sheepishly, checking the end for damage. Ensuring it was intact, she held it out to Frea, who took it, rolling her eyes.

"I really ought to teach you some combat basics someday." She grumbled, hefting the sword. "Or else you might kill someone...or yourself."

"Fine, fine." Kiara grumbled, flushing from embarrassment. "Just swing the damn thing."

Frea complied, sweeping the sword in a flawless horizontal arc. It glowed brightly as she moved, and at the peak of its arc, the light coalesced into a spectral, shimmering line, which shot forward and cleaved a shallow cut into the stone wall some 15 feet away, with a screech of metal on stone.

"Well, that's certainly something." Kiara remarked, inspecting the gash in the wall, before looking back at the door. "I wonder…" she padded over towards the stone door, inspecting the carvings around it and muttering incantations under her breath, gesturing swiftly as her eyes glowed with magic. 

Frea focused again on the two bodies before her. Clearly, Gratian and his partner had succumbed to the draugr while they slept. She sighed and crouched down beside them, murmuring a prayer that she knew from memory. 

"All-Maker guide and keep you, gentle child. May your passing feed the land, your bones mark your deeds, and your soul roam free on the winds past the end of time."

"What was that?" Kiara asked, gentle but curious, as she returned to her side.

"A funeral prayer for my people. I know these men are not Skaal but…" she frowned, looking at their remains. "They died here, alone and afraid, with no one to mourn them. They deserve any peace I am capable of giving them."

"I understand." The elf replied, and the two stood in silence over their bones for a moment. "I think I found the way out of here. If nothing else, we can finish their final quest."

"That would be good." Frea answered, standing fully and hefting the sword. "What must I do?"

"There are spots on this door that are marked by runes matching the sword. I  _ think, _ if you hit them with that...magic...blade...thingy, it might do...something?"

"You sound remarkably confident." the Nord replied dryly, but she nonetheless lifted the sword off her shoulder and stepped up to the door.

"Look, it's better than nothing." Kiara shot back, clearly grumpy. Frea didn't answer, simply sweeping the sword in another sideways motion, matching the horizontal slash that glimmered red on the frame of the door. It made contact, and with a low rumble, the large stone retracted, allowing another panel to slide upwards, changing the orientation of the frame.

"That  _ is _ something." Frea admitted, repeating the process on the other side as Kiara whipped out her journal, eagerly taking notes. They repeated the process several times until finally, with a final downward swing, the door rumbled, creaked, and slid open with a rusted screech, revealing the passage beyond.

"Oh thank the Divines." Kiara let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "I admittedly wasn't sure if that'd work."

"Don't get too excited." Frea grumbled, peering into the passage beyond. "Look at  _ that _ ." She pointed down the newly revealed hallway, which was filled with a large number of mechanisms that ground into action as the door was opened, setting a tremendous number of swinging blade traps into motion, filling the corridor with the whistling  _ swish _ of deadly axe heads. At the far end, meters down, the light glinted against a lever that would likely stop the madness.

"Y'ffre's gnarled, viney  _ ass _ ." Kiara groaned, gazing into the booby-trapped hall. "Ok, ok, I can handle this. I think…" she flipped back several pages in her journal, reading quickly. "Yes, here. Watch out." Frea stepped back dutifully as Kiara inhaled, releasing a new Shout.

"Feim!"

This Thu'um was quieter, less aggressive than the others, and in a moment, covered the Dragonborn in a thin mist. She stepped forward, and revealed that her body had grown translucent and ethereal, as if she were a ghost. She hesitated for just a second before running forward, directly into the swinging blades.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow…" Kiara muttered on reflex as the blades hit her, phasing through her body painlessly, but still making her flinch. She reached the end just as the Shout wore off, and gratefully pulled the lever, bringing the traps to a grinding halt.

"Very impressive." Frea chuckled as she made her way gingerly up the newly cleared hall. "You sounded quite heroic."

"Shut up." Kiara muttered, although she did give a toothy grin. The pair walked forward into another large hall, this one with a huge pool of water taking up most of the floor space. A large chest sat near them, and a Word Wall glimmered on the far side. Kiara approached and pulled the chest open, looking in it and seeming disappointed.

"Huh, doesn't seem like they left us much." She said, pulling out a small coin purse. "Pity." Her disappointment was interrupted by a sudden splash from the center of the room, and to their collective horror, the floating form of yet another Dragon Priest rose out of the pool and onto its 'feet,' loosing a cry as it hoisted its staff. Kiara was frozen to the spot, petrified, and only Frea's quick thinking and quicker feet saved her from the thunderous crack of lightning that the lich flung at her.

"Not again…" Kiara muttered, face pale, as Frea hauled her back into the hallway, where the door provided a modicum of shelter. "Not now…"

"Kiara, I know you're scared." Frea spoke softly, flinching as another bolt of lightning slammed into the wall they were hiding behind. "But we can only beat this thing together."

"I know! But what if…" the elf gulped audibly, blinking away tears from the corners of her eyes, her voice falling. "What if you...what if I can't save you?" Frea took hold of her shoulders, gently reassuring her of her presence.

"I trust that you will never let that happen. I know you, Kiara, and I  _ know _ you can do this.  _ We _ can do this."

The Altmer squeezed her eyes shut, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand and regulating her breathing. She was far from ok, and even further from ready, but her friend besides her was a comfort, and she knew she had to do this.

"Good." Frea continued. "You still have the mask from Ahzidal, yes? Can you use that?" A plan was forming in the Nord's mind, and Kiara could see it. She nodded, hesitant to use the wretched mask, but reaching into her bag for it anyway. "Ok. I'll distract it, and you light it up. Don't worry about me, I can handle this." She gently pushed past the elf's protest. "Good luck."

The Nord gently pressed a kiss against her cheek before grabbing her axes and stepping back out into the open. She dodged left as a lightning bolt flew at her, charging the lich to try and tempt him away from the water. Kiara hesitated a moment, but as she heard another crack of thunder, dug Ahzidal's mask from her bag and hesitantly slid it on. She felt its power run through her, and for just a moment, felt a surge of confidence. 

Frea was doing a good job of distracting the creature, if nothing else. She dodged this way and that, avoiding the brunt of his lightning strikes, but she was tiring, and had not landed a single blow herself. Just as she felt the air tingle with static again, she heard Kiara again.

"Hey!" came her shout, slightly muffled by the metal mask. "Over here!" The lich and the Nord both turned to see the mage, standing ready in the doorway. Her hands were in front of her, holding a small compressed tongue of flame, which, as they watched, grew hotter and brighter until it was blinding, filling the room with heat and light as if it had become an open furnace. The mask glimmered a sickly orange, and from past its slits, they could see her eyes glowed just the same. With a primal cry of rage, she released the pent up flame, which exploded in a streaming inferno, consuming the Priest and scalding the pool into a tremendous cloud of steam.

The fire burned like that of a true dragon's, pouring endlessly from her hands and emitting a powerful roar as it scorched the very air. Frea, who had dove for safety, could feel the immense heat, as if she were standing in an oven. The room filled with steam and smoke, until finally, the fire died down. Slowly, the room cleared, revealing a panting Kiara on her knees, ripping the mask free of her face to get more air. The entire pool of water had been boiled to steam, filling the room with thick, humid fog. The very stone before her had been scorched, and the remains of the Dragon Priest lay crumbling where he had fallen. The only thing that had survived the inferno was his mask, which glimmered bright blue as Kiara rooted through its ashes to retrieve it.

"Are you ok?" she asked gently, seeing Frea stagger to her knees, panting.

'Yes, I'm fine. That was...quite the show."

"Sorry." The mage replied sheepishly, rubbing her neck. "I, uh, put a lot of emotions into that one."

"I could tell. You did very well."

"Thanks." The pair fell silent, and Kiara helped her partner up. "Now, if you don't mind, let's get the hell out of here. Crescius owes me a  _ lot _ of coin for this one."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all, guess who's back! Sorry this one took me a while, I had to delete and rewrite half of it cuz I kept getting stuck -.- but hey, it's done now, and it's a long one to boot!!
> 
> This is kinda the start of a sort of "interim" story arc before we get to the final showdown, so I'll be covering a variety of Solstheim side quests and developing the relationship more. Should be fun! Hope you enjoy!

**Author's Note:**

> So here it is!! My first Skyrim fic! Y'all honestly don't even KNOW how much I know about the elder scrolls, not to mention how much I love it, so honestly, this is a looong time coming. For some reason, this specific idea got stuck in my head, and since Frea is one of my absolute fave underrated characters, I figured what was the harm?
> 
> Anyway, this is gonna be *mostly* canon compliant, with a couple pretty obvious differences (Frea joining the Dragonborn in Apocrypha being the big one lol). I'm gonna mostly be following the Dragonborn storyline, with maybe a few diverges into other Solstheim things that involve the Skaal. We'll see.
> 
> And as a last fun fact before I leave you, you may notice throughout this fic that I personally subscribe to the theory that elves (especially in TES) are, well...kinda inhuman and creepy. They're kinda literally descended from gods, so things like sharp teeth, cold black eyes, freaky extra senses, extreme magic affinity, and other such things things should really be par for the course. Besides, what fun are elves if they aren't inhuman monsters in ill-fitting fleshsuits?


End file.
